Dragon Tamer
by WeepingCadaver
Summary: Mon, a Chinese student recently transferred to True Cross; Bon, a hot-headed genius of a student whose silently implied job is to stop Mon from getting too far lost in translation; Furfur, a demon. Put them together, what do you get? This story. Bon/OC
1. I

**A/N: Well, here is my first Blue Exorcist story, though it'll only be the first chapter until I get some feedback on how this is so I can decide on whether or not I should post any more. Also, there are six footnotes in this chapter, so just be aware of that. Thank you for reading, and please review so I know how my very first Blue Exorcist story is :D**

**Summary: Mon, a Chinese student recently transferred to True Cross Academy; Bon, a hot-headed genius of a student whose silently implied job is to stop Mon from getting too far lost in translation; Furfur, a demon with a score to settle with a certain remote village. Put them together, what do you get? This story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any _Blue Exorcist_ characters that may or may not appear. The only ones I own are the ones that don't belong to Kazue Kato, got it? Good :D**

Dragon Tamer  
>Chapter One<p>

With a clatter of heels two people stopped in front a strangely ornate doorway; from within the room the sound of frustrated muttering resounded, making the young girl outside even more nervous than she already was. There were already a number of quavering thoughts running through her head, not a single one positive.

_This place looks like something out of a fantasy __mànhuà_(1)_..._Was one of the things she thought, looking around the corridor at the tiled floor, the high roof, the door, everything; it was all so different to what she was used to. _I_ _can't understand a word they're saying in there! I'm doomed, I'll never understand Japanese! Everything Dad taught me's just gone..._ The girl groaned inwardly as the young man next to her smiled slightly and said something that she couldn't understand. He opened the door and stepped inside, motioning for her to follow him. _At least I can understand body language...that hasn't changed._

"Right! I think that's enough from you, Mr Okumura," An elderly, dumpy woman with an odd accent called above the floundering voice of one of the male students. Without much of a complaint the boy dropped the book out of his hands and sat down, seemingly relieved to not have to read from whatever it was that had been assigned.

"Christ, you can't even read somethin' that simple? What the hell's wrong with you?"

The boy who had so recently sat down turned in his seat to look at one of the other male students, a glare fixed on his face. He was a good looking boy, with blue eyes and dark hair, but it seemed that he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. "You wanna say that to my face?" He growled, only causing the other boy to laugh and glare back, leaning back in his seat.

"Heh," the laid back one muttered, turning his face away from his adversary. This boy looked like most delinquents; he had dark brown hair which had a large blonde stripe going down the middle and back, as well as a number of piercings in each ear. Even if he did seem to be wearing the right uniform, he didn't seem friendly in the least. "Just 'cause you can't handle the truth!"

"Bon, don't start on Rin," the boy sitting beside the one called 'Bon' said, leaning towards his friend slightly. "It's not worth the trouble."

"You bastard..."Rin muttered, seemingly ready to get up and start a fight in the middle of class; and he would have, if it wasn't for the people who had just walked in, one being a young man in uniform, and the other being a very confused looking girl.

_What the hell are these people saying...?_ Panicked, the girl fidgeted nervously as she stood out the front of the minimal class. Looking out at the people in front of her, she just _knew_ if they stared at her much longer she was going to be sick; the after effects of the flight over weren't helping.

"Well," the young man who seemed to be a teacher despite his age, said in what seemed to be almost complete gibberish to the girl, "Here is the new student I told you all about. She has very little Japanese and has transferred here from an exorcist's school in Xi'an, China; her name is Onishi Mon, I hope you will all treat her well."

"Hmm?" Rin muttered, staring stupidly at Mon standing out the front. "But she has a Japanese name, doesn't she, Yukio?"

Yukio, the young man standing beside Mon sighed and propped his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose. "Yes, Rin, but I don't have time to explain all this now. Anyway," Yukio turned to Mon. "How about you go and sit next to Konekomaru? I'm sure he will be able to help you catch up."

_Huh? What's he saying? Why's he looking at me like that? Oh god! What do I do?_ Mon looked frightfully from Yukio to the class in front of her, not really knowing what to do. It seemed as if all the basics of Japanese which her father had taught her before she arrived had simply left her; her head was sore, her stomach felt queasy, and she hadn't the slightest idea as to why her mother had agreed with her father to come to Japan. _Ah dear god!_

Yukio sighed as he once again adjusted his glasses, and turned towards the class. "Konekomaru, please raise your hand for Miss Onishi."

"Yes, sir," Konekomaru, the boy sitting behind Bon said, raising his hand slightly and watching as Mon tried to make the connection between his raised hand, and Yukio motioning towards him.

_Oh!_ Mon put her hand over her mouth as her face began to redden; _I need to go sit next to the one with glasses...but what's his name?_ Gritting her teeth, Mon ignored the questions that ran through her head and headed down the aisle between the tables to sit next to Konekomaru.

Konekomaru was a small boy from what Mon could tell, he looked no taller than her, and she thought _she_ was short. He had sticky-outy ears, large red glasses, and a close shaven head; to her he looked like a little monk.

_That's it! That's what I'll call him! 'Little Monk'!_ Mon's face lit up as that realisation hit her; even if she didn't know their names, she could just call them _something_ that she could remember them by, if not their names. _Now, what about the rest of them..._She mused, her chin resting in her hand as she looked around the classroom.

Looking around the classroom, Mon was already noticing some strange characters; she already knew the ones sitting beside and in front of her, but there was also a girl with dark hair and strange, reddish eyes, and sitting next to Rin was a shy looking blonde girl; the weirdest of all was probably the boy sitting right at the front by himself with a puppet on his hand.

_Hmm,_ she thought, looking from one person to the next, _maybe it'll be harder to give these people nicknames than I thought...huh?_ Mon's musings were soon interrupted by the confusing voice of one of the boys in front of her; this one was the one who had tried to cool down the fight between Bon and Rin. He had turned around in his seat and was trying to talk to Mon, albeit in Japanese. Oddly enough he had pink hair. Mon couldn't help but pray that it was dyed.

"Hey, you're Mon, aren't you?" The boy was saying, grinning slightly, not even pretending to pay attention to the teacher who was seemingly lecturing the class on some Bible verse. The boy not only had strangely coloured hair, but he had such an air of carefreeness and laziness around him that it was almost concerning. "That's a pretty name, but why've you got a Japanese name if you're Chinese, eh?"

"什么(2)?" Mon simply stared at the boy in front of her, not even trying to speak in Japanese; she was too confused and nervous, so she simply talked in her native language, Chinese. She could tell by the look on the pink haired boy's face that she had confused him just as much as he had confused her.

"Ah, well, here's an interesting problem..." He said, scratching his head and laughing as Mon continued to flounder in everything lost in translation.

Mon looked to Konekomaru –or as she knew him, 'Little Monk'- as he said something to the pink haired boy. _I'm doomed..._ was the one thought that went through Mon's head as she looked from one to the other, trying to make sense of their foreign communications.

"Shima," Konekomaru said to the pink haired boy, a frown on his face. "Can't you tell that she can't understand what you're saying? Don't confuse her any more than she already is."

Shima, the pink haired boy looked at Konekomaru with mock hurt. "Don't say that Koneko! I'm just trying to be civil to such a pretty lady!" Once again he grinned at Mon, causing her to be even more scared of the people she had been forced to sit with.

_Damn the bastard that made me sit here!_ She thought, hanging her head as 'Little Monk' and 'Pinkie's conversation passed on around her, unintelligible.

"Keh, will you two just leave it?"

Mon lifted her head as another voice joined in the conversation; she couldn't understand what this person was saying, but she could tell by the tone of his voice that he was either annoyed, or very good at acting annoyed. The most she could get out of the conversation was that this one, the one with the blonde skunk stripe in his hair, was arguing with the other two, namely Shima, 'Pinkie'.

"It's obvious she can't understand what any of us are saying, so just leave her." Bon said, turning away from Konekomaru and Mon. "We're in the middle of class anyway...why'd that damn Mister Okumura have to dump her with us? Damn it...she can't even understand Japanese, so what the hell's she doin' here?"

"Now, now, Bon," Shima said, turning away from Konekomaru and Mon. "There's no reason to be so rude to Beppin-san(3)."

Bon scoffed and continued to ignore Shima, Konekomaru and Mon, seeming to be concentrating on the lesson they were in.

_That was...odd..._ Mon thought, _and slightly terrifying._ She sighed as she finally looked up to the teacher out the front of the classroom; even if she couldn't really understand what anyone was saying, she was starting to pick out some words that she remembered. None that seemed to be any help though, unfortunately. The best she could do was sit there and pretend she understood at least a little of what everyone was saying.

Sighing, Mon put her head in her hands and listened to the muted gibberish around her; she knew she would be lucky to get by in the exorcist's cram school, she thought she would have even more trouble than Rin, the boy who was obviously having trouble reading things out aloud. Her school life was going to be interesting.

X

Outside it was hot enough so as to see the heat rising off any and all flat surfaces. The sun was at its pinnacle, burning down upon everyone and everything within its grasp; it seemed to be mocking them all. Any student at True Cross that was crazy enough to be outside would _have_ to be turning into a lobster by the time they got inside. No matter, it seemed that three people didn't have much of a problem with the heat, or at least, none of them showed whether it was bothering them or not.

"Gah, what was with that chick?" Bon, one of the three boys sitting outside said almost fuming; certainly not good for him in that weather. By then, the previous class, the one in which Mon had first been introduced to the cram school students was over, and everyone now had a break before, it seemed, a PE class. Konekomaru, Shima, and Bon were all wearing purple track suits, and were sitting on the edge of a water fountain.

"Now, Bon," Shima said, mock hurt once again taking over his facial features. "Why're you being so mean to Beppin-san? It's not her fault! Maybe I should ask her for her number..." He mumbled with a euphoric grin on his face. Even though Shima had only mumbled the last part, Konekomaru and Bon both heard.

Konekomaru said, "Shima, you need to purge yourself of your worldly desires; are you a monk or not?"

Shima stared at Konekomaru, his eyes going wide with pretend shock. "Koneko, you're so mean!" By the way Konekomaru sighed, and how Bon just ignored what Shima was saying pointed to them having similar conversations quite a bit –probably more often than was healthy. "Where'd she go, anyway?"

Bon sighed, "Who knows?"

"Mm-hm," Konekomaru agreed, nodding his head. "Isn't it about time we go to class now, anyway? Maybe we'll see her there, if she doesn't get lost."

Bon simply grunted a reply, and Shima nodded, all concerns seeming non-existent in his head. As they made their way to their next class, it seemed as if they each had forgotten all about Mon.

X

_That was traumatising._ Mon thought as she tried to find her way to her next class. _And it's so hot!_ Growling as she wiped the back of her hand across her forehead, Mon once again looked at the piece of paper in her hands; on it was a list of times, classes and places, though all of them were written in Japanese. It seemed that she was even worse at reading Japanese words than she was at speaking, because she had somehow managed to end up in a number of places, each one obviously not being the place she was meant to be; one of them being the cafeteria.

The heat wasn't helping as Mon stopped beside a tiered fountain and looked around; she could see a few students walking around, both to and from classes, or just walking around for the hell of it, but there was nothing and no one that she knew. She realised that she was utterly lost, and the size of the school was making things even harder for her. _Who makes a school this freaking big anyway? It's like a damn city!_

Sighing, she resigned herself to sitting by the fountain and watching the other students walk around, not seeming to realise just how large and daunting their school was to someone like Mon. Holding the paper in front of her she tried one last time to figure out what it said.

Even if she probably wouldn't be able to make it to her next class, or even the one after that – if there was one after that- she could at least sit beside the fountain. She like the look of it, the stone work, the tiers, the water flowing out, around, and back up to start its route again; she liked the light from the sun, even if she didn't like the heat. She was also happy that she could at least find her way back to her dorm room if everything else failed.

"Huh?" Mon muttered, looking up as a few voices headed towards her. To her horror, it just had to be the three boys from her class before; 'Little Monk', 'Pinkie' and 'Skunk' – as Mon had so recently decided to call the one with the stripe, Bon. Shima, who had been the one to scare Mon the most, stopped in front of her, closer than the other two with a casual smile on his face.

"You know, you should probably get to class now, it's going to start soon." He said, smiling and resting his hands behind his head.

Mon just stared at him, once again not understanding what he was saying. She couldn't help but wonder: _When in hell will this guy understand that I _don't_ understand a word he's saying? Maybe if I just yell at him in Chinese he'll go away and leave me be..._ Sighing, Mon just shrugged and shook her head, trying to indicate that she didn't know what Shima was saying.

"Ah, well," Was the only thing Shima said before looking back to Bon and Konekomaru, as if for backup; "What do we do?" was clearly visible as the expression on his face.

Konekomaru just shrugged and laughed nervously, obviously not sure what to do, while Bon just looked at Shima like he was either insane or quite thick, possibly both. Mon was sure to be confused and scared once again.

Bon took a few steps towards Mon and just stared at her; Mon couldn't tell what he was thinking, but by the slightly mean look on Bon's face, she didn't think it was anything good. From the slight flush on his cheeks from the heat of the sun, the glinting of his piercings, she was certainly not sure what was going to happen at all.

That was why when he took a hold of her wrist and started to drag her away from the fountain, she was about ready to open her mouth and scream; but when Bon turned around and said something to her, she could easily tell even without actually knowing what he said, that she shouldn't say anything, let alone scream.

_Th-th-th-this is kidnapping, isn't it?_ Was the thought that ran through her head as she walked –or was being dragged- behind Bon. As she looked around and behind her, she could see that Konekomaru and Shima were following. The former had a slight look of concern on his face, and the latter looking about ready to burst with laughter.

"Hey, Bon," Shima said, jogging to catch up with his friend. "What d'you think this looks like to everyone else, eh? Dragging some girl off to god knows where..."

"Shima..." Was all that Bon mumbled in reply, not loosening his grip on Mon's wrist in the slightest.

Inwardly Mon sighed, giving up her internal struggle with whether or not to try and get away from these people; she simply decided to go along with them and trust that they weren't as scary as had crossed her mind. This time sighing aloud, she couldn't help but wonder just what her mother had gotten her into by sending her to True Cross Academy.

X

_This...is not what I signed up for..._

Mon stared, open mouthed down into the circular pit where two other students were fighting each other; she could easily tell that it was only practice for real battles, but either way she was slightly scared. She had no idea whether or not she would be called to go down into the pit to verse one of the other students, and she definitely hoped she wouldn't. She didn't know what she would do if she had to fight one of the students; to her they looked too strong for her.

Standing on a platform above the circular pit was the one who Mon could only see as the teacher; he was a middle-aged man wearing the same uniform as the young man that had introduced her to her first class. This one was standing on the platform as if he owned the place, but he also had a weird air about him; unknown to Mon, his name was known to the students as Mr Tsubaki.

"All right!" He said, raising his hand in the air to indicate the end of the match. "That's enough!" Mr Tsubaki had to repeat himself a couple of times and even get down into the pit and try to break up the fight before the two boys in the pit stopped wrestling each other. It just so happened that the two who had –begrudgingly- stopped their fight were both Bon and Rin. Both of them had quickly declared that they would beat the other before they hurried into an all-out brawl. They were lucky that the teacher let them go on for as long as they did; though they came out with more bruises then they probably intended to get.

"Honestly, those idiots..." One girl with dark hair and strangely shaped eyebrows who was sitting a little way off from Mon muttered, shaking her head as she watched the pair of boys climb up the ladder. The teacher was also making his way back to the small circular platform above the pit.

"I swear I'll beat you." Rin muttered as he reached the top of the pit and sat down, letting out a long held sigh of relief. It seemed that even if he hadn't been beaten by Bon, he hadn't won either.

Bon scoffed as he sat down with Konekomaru and Shima, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. "You'll never beat me, and you'll never defeat Satan!" He said glaring daggers back at Rin.

Rin growled and glared straight back at Bon, ready to retort, though he stopped mid-way through opening his mouth as a sweet looking blonde girl crouched down and sat beside him. "Ah, Shiemi!" He muttered, obviously a little startled.

"Well done, Rin," Shiemi said, smiling at Rin. "You were good against Suguro."

"Uh, yeah..." Rin muttered, looking away from Shiemi, obviously blushing – though Shiemi seemed totally oblivious to it all.

"Strange..." Mon muttered. Even though she didn't understand the words everyone was saying, she could at least tell a little bit by what they were doing when they spoke. She still had no idea what to do about anything though; the fact that she was the only one still wearing the formal uniform was making her feel awkward as well as simply nervous.

As Mon continued to look Rin over, she noticed how he was carrying a wooden sword with him; she was fairly sure he had had it with him the first time she saw him, in class as well, but she couldn't be sure. She could already tell he was going to be an interesting classmate.

"Next we will have," Mr Tsubaki yelled from his spot above the pit, scanning the small number of people as if searching for his next victim. "How about you, Miss Kamiki Izumo, and you Miss Onishi Mon?"

"Okay," the girl with the dark hair and strange eyebrows said, standing up and sliding down the wall into the pit below.

A complete silence ensued; the Leaper's cages that sat in the middle of the pit were empty for the class and none of the students were making any noise except for Izumo, who was walking around in the pit below. After a few moments, Mr Tsubaki's voice drifted down from his spot above the pit; "Miss Onishi, would you please climb down into the pit!"

It took a few more moments and a few more brain taxing internal translations before Mon understood what was going on. _Oh..._ She thought, feeling her cheeks redden. _He actually wants me to go down there and fight against...that girl..._ Thinking there was nothing to be done about it despite her nerves and doubts; she squared her shoulders and headed towards the ladder, climbing down into the pit below.

As she came to stand near Izumo, she could hear some talking coming from above her. As always she didn't understand what they were saying, though she could pick out a few words like 'interesting' and 'watch'. She was even able to recognise some of the voices talking, but unfortunately not by name.

"Listen carefully!" Mr Tsubaki called down to Mon and Izumo, interrupting the conversations above. "This fight will be just like the one before, but do not act like Suguro and Okumura and turn it into a wrestling match!"

Bon scoffed and Rin growled at the last comment made by their teacher, though they made no further comments of their own.

"However," the teacher continued, "You are allowed to use whatever means necessary to win, but you are not to overly injure each other. This may be a form of combat training, but you do not need to incapacitate nor kill your opponent."

"Hey, Rin," Shiemi said, turning towards him. "What do you think this new girl will do?"

"I don't know," Rin said, shaking his head and looking down at Mon and Izumo. "We don't even know what Meister she's going for, so who knows? I doubt she even understood a thing Mister Tsubaki said."

Shiemi nodded her head in agreement, "Mm-hm," she muttered, turning slightly to watch just as the match was about to get under way.

"Do your best, Beppin-san!" Cupping his hands around his mouth, Shima yelled down to the two opponents as if without any sense of shame. From the look both Bon and Konekomaru gave him, they thought so too. "But you know," Shima said, lowering his hands. "Izumo's just as good an option to root for..."

"Shima..." Both Bon and Konekomaru muttered.

"Right," Mr Tsubaki called down to Izumo and Mon. "Ready, go!" He yelled for the fight to star, raising his hand into the air.

The moment the word "go" left Mr Tsubaki's mouth Izumo had two small squares of paper in one of her hands; straight away she bit her thumb hard enough to draw blood and promptly wiped it across both papers saying, "I humbly call the Gods of Harvest. Follow my wishes, leave none unfulfilled!"

"怎么回事(4)?" Mon couldn't help but speak in Chinese as she saw the familiars that Izumo had summoned; there were two of them, and they seemed to simply appear out of the air. They looked like white foxes, their tails disappearing into ghost like vapours; they had some strange black markings on their faces and coloured cloth around their necks. As they stood near Izumo, Mon couldn't help but wonder just _what_ that girl's familiars were.

Shima, who was sitting almost anxiously above muttered, "Oh, I wonder what Beppin-san's going to do..." And from the looks on everyone else's faces, they were wondering the same; the girl had only arrived that day, and now they were probably going to find out what Meister type she was going for. It was pretty obvious that even though Mon had only arrived that morning that they were still curious about her; after all, a new addition to such a small class would be a bit strange.

Izumo closed her eyes as if to concentrate and said, "Quaver, gently quaver...rite of the quavering soul!" And without any hesitation her familiars went straight for Mon.

Mon had no idea what was really going on as the most she could do was close her eyes and protect her face as she felt the fox spirits move around her; she felt strong tugging at both her uniform and her hair, as if a strong wind was trying to knock her over. By the time she was able to open her eyes her hair had be blown all over the place and covered most of her face; she was also feeling dizzy and more than a little disoriented.

"Well this isn't good." Mon mumbled as she felt around the collar of her shirt, watching the spirits suspiciously as they returned to their master, albeit poised and ready for another attack. "Got it," she said as she pulled a medium sized pin out from her collar, though just as she started to roll up the long sleeves of her blouse Izumo called for her familiars to go again, and they went without any hesitation.

"Come _on_," Izumo called towards Mon, her hands on her hips and a smirk dancing across her lips as she watched her familiars dance around Mon once again. "This isn't supposed to be so one sided; why are you even _here_?"

From above Shima muttered, "That was harsh, Izumo..." as he watched the fight unravel; some of the other students like Rin and Shiemi were talking to each other as they watched, but Konekomaru, Bon and Takara, the one with the puppet, were watching it mostly silently.

_What the hell's that girl doing?_ Was the thought that ran through Bon's mind as he watched the fight; from his viewpoint it looked like Mon was getting the crap beaten out of her by Izumo's fox spirits. The familiars continued to circle and attack Mon in various ways, starting to draw blood and bruise her, tearing her uniform; it looked as if Mon had never fought against a Tamer's familiars before.

From beside Shiemi, Rin continued watching the fight wondering if it was okay. "Is this fight even fair?" Rin called up to the teacher as he watched Mon once again get hit by Izumo's familiars, audibly hissing in pain.

Mr Tsubaki looked away from the fight for a moment to look over to the few students. "It may not seem fair, and if it goes too far then I will stop the fight, but at the moment there's nothing wrong!" Looking back to the fight and ignoring the dirty look given to him by Rin, he too wondered just what Mon was going to do, if anything.

Mon was breathing heavily by the time Izumo called her familiars back again; she was bleeding from a number of small cuts that stung like hell, she could feel some bruises forming, and parts of her uniform were torn; she glared as Izumo said something that was obviously not all that nice, even to Mon.

_Finally, she's stopped those stupid cats..._ Mon thought as she finally rolled both her sleeves up to just above her elbows. What was on her arms caused a wave of confusion to run through the few people above; running up the top side of each arm and finishing just below her elbows was one line of characters per arm, obviously written in cursive and almost completely illegible. Wiping some blood off her face and pricking herself just below the writing with the pin she was still holding, she closed her eyes and got ready for the fox spirits to go after her again.

_Ugh, I hate having to do that; it always hurts, no matter what..._ Mon thought, wincing slightly at the pain where she had pierced her skin.

"What's on her arms?" Was the general question that was asked by Shiemi and Rin, and Konekomaru and Shima; the only one who was able to even try to answer the question was Bon.

"It looks like Chinese writing, but it looks pretty different to anything I've seen," he said, folding his arms and trying to get a better look at the writing. "I think she's going to summon something." _Is she a Tamer, too?_

"Huh?" Izumo hesitated as she watched Mon start to wipe the blood up her left arm. "Heh, summoning something won't help you now; one more time," she looked to her familiars, "Quaver, quaver, rite of the quavering soul!"

The two fox spirits didn't even make it all the way to Mon. They only managed to get half way across the distance between Izumo and Mon before each one was stopped dead in their tracks; the look on Izumo's face was priceless.

"Wh-what's going on?" She asked staring at her familiars in disbelief as they each got thrown around by a seemingly invisible force. Each of the foxes was being thrown to the ground and into each other; they were growling and yelping in pain. "What's happening to them?"

Above the pit everyone was a perfect picture of shock –except Takara, of course; Rin and Shiemi were staring down at the fox spirits being thrown around like rag dolls with their mouths open fit for catching flies, Shima was the same, but he had a strange twinkle in his eyes, and Bon and Konekomaru were looking critically down at the creatures being attacked by, it seemed, nothing.

"What did that chick do?" Bon muttered, staring down at the scene. "If she had summoned a demon we'd be able to see it, right?" He asked, tearing his eyes away and looking at Konekomaru next to him; "right?"

Konekomaru nodded. "Yeah, we should be able to see it if it's a demon, but..." He left the rest of the sentence hanging, not quite sure how to finish it. What could Mon have summoned if no one in the class could see what it was –that is assuming that the others couldn't see it either? Did she even actually summon something, or was she doing something completely different to Izumo's familiars?

"What are you doing to my familiars?" Izumo snapped at Mon, clenching her fists by her sides and glaring at the girl in front of her as her fox familiars continued to be batted around on the ground. "What did you do?"

As Mon ran another line of blood up her other arm, presumably summoning something else, she coughed and tried to speak and say something that Izumo might be able to understand; she even tried to say it in Japanese, but it didn't seem to get through as Izumo just continued to glare at Mon and tried to call her familiars back.

"I," Mon began, trying to speak in Japanese instead of Chinese; she knitted her brow in concentration as she tried to pull together all the Japanese she could remember. "Onmyōji...is what I am." Shaking her head to try and clear it, she tried one more time as Izumo held the two pieces of paper in front of her, ready to be torn and release her familiars. "Shikigami," Mon said helplessly.

Shima almost laughed. "She has such a funny accent!"

"Huh?" Rin muttered almost under his breath. "Onmyōji? Shikigami? Is she really speaking Japanese? What the hell is she talking about? She made more sense when she was talking in Chinese!" Rin wove his hands into his hair and grit his teeth as he tried to make sense of what Mon had said.

Rin turned to look at Bon as he started to explain, not taking his eyes off the fight in the pit: "Onmyōji were specialists in divination and magic; they used to have the responsibility of keeping track of things in astronomy, nature, the keeping of time and calendars," he unfolded his arms and stood up, never taking his concentration away from Mon. "And a Shikigami is a type of demon an Onmyōji is supposed to be able to control, like an exorcist's familiar. Shikigami are invisible, even to us, I guess."

"Huh..."

"So you control Shikigami?" Izumo asked, still poised to tear the seals. "That would make you a Tamer, wouldn't it? Whatever." Just as Izumo began to tear the paper she noticed something strange; her familiars were no longer being attacked by the invisible Shikigami, they were just standing there looking around as if searching for the creatures that had attacked them.

"The abominations are gone," one of the foxes said.

"That was tiring," Mon muttered reverting back to Chinese; she stumbled forward a bit and put one hand to her forehead and the other out to steady herself. "But why's the floor moving...?" Before Mr Tsubaki or anyone else could do anything, Mon collapsed face first to the ground, her hair splaying out around her.

"Beppin-san!" Shima yelled as he stood up and followed the others who had jumped down into the pit –namely Bon, Shiemi, Rin and Konekomaru; Takara didn't hurry. Mr Tsubaki and Shiemi were the first ones to Mon's side.

The teacher turned Mon over and knelt down beside her; he checked her over a couple of times, checking that she was breathing, that her heart was steady and so on. By the time he spoke Mon's breathing had become the kind you would hear from someone in a deep sleep. "She's okay," Mr Tsubaki said, sitting up. "She collapsed because she was tired, probably."

"Heh," Bon scoffed and folded his arms across his chest, saying: "Of course, but more likely because she's weak then anythin' else."

"At least she's okay..." Rin muttered, kneeling beside Mon.

Shima nodded, "Yeah," he said, relieved.

Bon looked at Mon as she lay on the ground; her hands twitched and her mouth looked to be forming words, though she didn't say anything. She seemed to just be asleep more than unconscious; Bon could've sworn he heard her stomach growl. _What is up with this girl?_ Bon thought as Mr Tsubaki's phone rang a couple of times before he answered it.

Mr Tsubaki turned away from the students and partially covered his mouth with his free hand. "I'll be right there, my kitten..." He muttered before hanging up and turning back to his students. "Alright," he said, placing his hands on his hips. "One of you take Miss Onishi to her dorm room –it should be written down with her classes somewhere, check her pocket- and get a Doctor class to take a look at her. I have some business to attend to," he added. "So I will be back some time later." And with that, he ran off with the students staring after him.

"So," Izumo said as she walked up to everyone around Mon. "Who's going to take her and check her pockets?"

"You make it sound like we're going to mug her!" Shima laughed, crouching down. "Well, I guess _I_ might as well do it." He said, reaching towards the pocket of her skirt. "Hey!" He said as someone grabbed a hold of his wrist; he turned around to see Bon crouching beside him, glaring.

"You're not going to do anything to her," Bon said as he pulled Shima's hand away and he went to searching her pocket. After a moment with Shima complaining to him and Konekomaru once again lecturing him on discarding his worldly desires, Bon pulled out the piece of paper that had Mon's classes, times, rooms and so on written on it. He looked it over a bit before he stood up, picking Mon up with him.

"What're you doing?" Rin asked as he stood up as well.

Glaring, Bon said, "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm gonna take her back to her dorm. You go get Mr Okumura or some other Doctor class and tell them to go to the dorm room on the timetable." He handed Rin the paper he had looked at, nodding to it as Rin took it.

Rin looked it over just as Bon had and nodded. "Okay," he said. "I'll go get Yukio." And with that he left the same way the teacher had with Shiemi following after him, jogging to keep up.

"C'mon," Bon called over his shoulder to Shima and Konekomaru as he too, started to leave.

"Yep," both Konekomaru and Shima said, following Bon as he carried Mon away, cradling her.

"Wait!" Izumo called after them. "You're just going to leave me here with Takara?" When there was no reply, all Izumo could do was glare in the direction everyone had gone. _Those bastards..._ She thought glancing at Takara as he seemingly held a telepathic conversation with the puppet on his hand.

X

A single thought floated through Mon's clouded mind; _it's warm_. That fact was the only thing she could think of, that and that she seemed to be somewhere warm and comfortable like her room back in Xi'an. _Xi'an..._ Mon's rapidly clearing mind began to put together more thoughts. _But I'm not in Xi'an, am I?_ As that realisation settled and her eyelids began to flutter open, the sight Mon was greeted with was a strange one.

Mon bolted upright from where she was lying. "Nĭ zuò shénme ne(5)?" She yelled at the ones who had been leaning over her when she woke up. Standing around the room were Bon, Konekomaru, Shima, Rin, Shiemi, and the one who had originally introduced her to the class, Yukio. As she looked around at them, her heart racing she wondered what had happened to her to have her end up back in her dorm room, not being able to remember.

"It's okay," Yukio said, stepping towards Mon. "You collapsed during your physical training class. Suguro brought you back here," he said the last part as he nodded towards the ones behind him, namely Bon – or Skunk, as Mon still thought of him as. He wouldn't meet Mon's eyes when she looked at him.

"You're okay now, aren't you?" Rin asked from beside Bon, a grin on his face. "With someone like Yukio looking after you you'll be great in no time!"

Mon smiled; even if she didn't completely understand what he had said, she knew by his grin that it had been something good. To her Rin was certainly interesting, and he seemed like a really nice guy. _No wonder that blonde girl seemed to be such good friends with him..._ Mon thought, having to supress a giggle.

Shima grinned and pointed to himself. "I could take care of you just as well," he said.

That time Mon really did laugh. She could tell just by the way Shima talked that he was trying to chat her up, and she could tell that he would just about say anything to any girl. "Um," Mon said, trying to pull up the Japanese word she was thinking of. "Sank you(6)?"

Mon's face reddened as Shima all but broke into fits of laughter. Just as Mon was wondering what she had said wrong, Shima said, "That's such a cute accent! You should speak in Japanese more often, Beppin-san!"

"Shima," Konekomaru said, shaking his head. "You're worrying her, stop laughing."

As Shima started to calm down and Rin said something else that Mon couldn't quite understand, Yukio tried to talk to her. She wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying –not that she would be able to understand it all that well anyway, he was probably just saying something about staying and resting for the day, drink plenty of fluids, et cetera, et cetera. Really, her mind and eyes were focused on one person in particular; Bon.

Mon had finally managed to pick up on a few names, and she had figured out that the pink haired one was called Shima, and that the one with the skunk stripe was called Suguro by the teachers, but Bon by everyone else. When Yukio had said something and nodded towards Bon, she could figure out that he was the one that had brought her back to her room. She could almost say that she was deathly embarrassed as well as slightly freaked out.

As Yukio finished his spiel Mon tore her attention away from Bon and simply nodded. After saying something to everyone and leaving with the others filing out of the room behind him, Mon wondered what to do.

"A Chinese to Japanese dictionary's what I need..." She muttered, going back to Chinese, as she stood up and started to search through her belongings that were scattered around the room. Eventually she found what she was looking for; a Chinese to Japanese dictionary that her dad had given to her before she left Shibuya –where her family was now living- for True Cross Academy.

Mon picked up her time table that was sitting on her desk and sat with it, the dictionary and a pen on her bed, ready to translate and hopefully learn a bit more Japanese.

Finis

**Footnotes:**

1 "mànhuà" Chinese name for "comics" or "manga"

2 "什么?" Chinese word (shénme), meaning "What?"

3 "Beppin-san" Japanese Kansai-ben pet name (別嬪さん) meaning something like "Pretty Lady"

4 "怎么回事？" Chinese phrase (zenme hui shi), meaning "What the...?"

5 "Nĭ zuò shénme ne?" another phrase (你做什么呢?), meaning basically "What are you doing?" (for future reference, "shénme" means "what")

6 "Sank you？" This time Mon tried to speak in Japanese; the reason the "thank" is spelt like "sank" is because of the accent Mon would have when speaking Japanese. She's saying it kind of like a question because she's not sure if she got it right.

**A/N: Well, there's the first chapter...kind of long, but whatever, I wanted it to be since I won't be posting the rest unless I get some feedback, whether it's good or bad, I don't mind :D I've got a lot more written up already, but I want feedback, so...yeah, anyway, please, PLEASE review. Reviews are like my own personal brand of heroin...hopefully you lot'll kill me for making a _Twilight_ reference.**


	2. II

**A/N: Well, here's chapter two of my Blue Exorcist story :D I hope you enjoy it, and please leave a review so I know how it was. And just so you know, the next chapter might be slow in coming out, so...yeah. Also, once again there are some footnotes in this chapter, but only three of them, so be 'ware of them :)**

**Thank you to soeki, Miku Murasaki, and iamTherru, as well as the anonymous reviewer, ind, for reviewing the first chapter. And thanks to the people who added _Dragon Tamer_ to their alerts.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any _Blue Exorcist_ characters that may or may not appear. The ones I own are the ones that don't belong to Kazue Kato :)**

**Summary: Mon, a Chinese student recently transferred to True Cross Academy; Bon, a hot-headed genius of a student whose silently implied job is to stop Mon from getting too far lost in translation; Furfur, a demon with a score to settle with a certain remote village. Put them together, what do you get? This story.**

Dragon Tamer  
>Chapter Two<p>

It took a few days before Mon really started to feel even slightly comfortable in the cram school, let alone in her "normal" classes, though she was getting moderately better at understanding what the people around her were talking about; her reading wasn't getting any better though.

The thing she probably had the biggest problem with was having to sit with Bon, Konekomaru and Shima. She would have sat somewhere else, probably at a free table –she would _not_ sit next to the boy with the puppet, and she sure as hell wouldn't sit next to the girl that had technically beaten her the other day- but at least when she sat next to Bon or even sometimes Konekomaru she could ask them what something said; she at least figured out enough Japanese to ask that.

She was at least mildly comfortable with saying some things in Japanese, though even she could tell she wasn't all that crash hot at it. The fact that Shima would say something about something being cute –probably either her or the way she said things- after every time she spoke didn't help her self-esteem.

There was one thing that worried her though, and that was that every time she asked Bon something he would look at her like he would snap at her at any moment. Even though he tried to explain whatever she asked about relatively nicely, Mon could always hear the slightly annoyed tone in his voice, as if he didn't think it worth explaining anything to her; it freaked her out, in a way.

The thing Mon liked most about True Cross was that she only had one "above ground" class with someone from the cram school, and it was Rin that was in the class and that class happened to be English. It didn't take her long before she realised just what kind of student Rin was; falling asleep, almost as bad as she was at reading things out aloud in Japanese, let alone English, not being able to do the work, et cetera, et cetera. She was beginning to wonder how he had managed to get into such a school as that one.

"Ah, finally!" Mon sighed as she stretched her arms above her head. She had just finished her mathematics class and was heading to the cram school for her next lesson; from what she understood in the Demon Pharmacology class –which was the one she had next- they were learning about which substances repel or attract demons. Much better than mathematics.

Adjusting her skirt with one hand and holding a key in the other, she approached the door to one of the school buildings and put the key in the lock and turned it. Once she heard a click from the lock Mon pulled the key out, turned the door handle, and entered into the strangely decorated corridor that she had first walked down to her first class.

_It's already been nearly a week..._ Mon sighed as the thought occurred to her; she wondered when she should call her family and talk to them about the cram school and even just the normal school. She was just as curious about how the rest of her family was as they undoubtedly were about how she was.

Lost in thoughts as she walked into the classroom and headed towards her usual seat, she was a little bit shocked to see that neither Bon, Shima or Konekomaru were there yet; the only person other than her that was in the classroom was Takara who was just sitting in his usual seat with his puppet.

After a moment's hesitation and an internal freak-out, Mon calmed enough to think clearly. _Okay,_ she thought, shaking her head. _I just need to sit down; I've been sitting there all this time...it'll just feel a bit awkward since I'll just be sitting there when they walk in...Oh God..._ Groaning quietly, the only thing Mon could think and worry about was what the three boys would think when they just saw her sitting there.

She had no idea why, but she just couldn't help but think that it would be awkward if she sat down first and they had to sit around her; it would mean that one of them would have to _choose_ to sit next to her, and she didn't want that. Either way, she didn't actually care what Konekomaru or Shima would think –not that she actually knew or could guess what they'd think- but the truth was that she really only cared what Bon would think.

Truthfully, after she had collapsed in her physical training class and found out once she had woken up that Bon was the one that had taken her back to her room, she couldn't really look at him without being embarrassed. Mostly she worried about what he would think of her for fainting in the middle of a fight like she did, and whether or not he disliked her as much as she thought he did.

Before Mon had time to chew on her thoughts any more, she started and turned around to face the door as she heard it open and then click shut. Inwardly –and almost outwardly- she groaned and had to ask herself "why?" As luck would have it, the ones to walk in right in the middle of Mon's freak out had to be Bon, Shima and Konekomaru.

As they walked passed her, Mon became just a little _too_ conscious of how close Bon was as he walked past her; she would have lent away a bit if her nerves hadn't frozen her in place. No matter, all three of them seemed to be concentrating on their conversation as they moved past her, though Mon noticed that once they had sat down, that Konekomaru and Bon were sitting together. Mon would have to sit next to Shima.

_This will never end..._ She thought, hanging her head.

"Hmm?" Shima mumbled, looking up and seeing Mon. "Ah, Beppin-san! Why're you just standing there? Come and sit down!" He patted the seat the next to him and smiled at Mon.

"Um," Mon said, trying to think of something to say in Japanese, but when she couldn't she just settled with saying, "okay." And went and sat down next to Shima.

In a way, Mon actually quite liked Shima; he was funny –though probably not in a good way- and even though he was hard to understand sometimes, she thought he was nice enough. She did, however notice just how much of a _lady's man_ he could be; she noticed this mostly because of the way he acted towards not only her, but also towards Izumo. It also seemed as if he had no shame.

Now Bon and Konekomaru were a whole 'nother story. Koneko was definitely a nice person, though he didn't seem anything special to Mon, as harsh as that may seem; to her, he seemed like a nice guy she'd want to be friends with, he was relatively smart and was happy to help her when she asked. She actually felt almost completely comfortable with him.

When it came to Bon though, Mon felt completely useless. She couldn't even look at him without feeling embarrassed and having a blush colour her cheeks, she couldn't have him look at _her_ without the same happening. Even just sitting next to him made whatever class she would be in like hell, and it just made concentrating on her work –or at least trying to understand it- difficult. She knew how she felt, and she would admit it...that is, as long as she was alone in a dark room where no one would be able to recognise her and no one who may hear her could understand Chinese.

Interrupting her thoughts as he blundered into the room, Rin almost literally _fell_ straight through the doorway just as the beginning of class bell went. He was followed by Shiemi who was laughing and smiling at him as he sat down in his usual seat with a sigh, and Izumo who was just looking at him like he was a total idiot.

_I wonder if anything interesting'll happen today..._ Mon thought as that lesson's teacher, Yukio walked into the room and started getting ready to teach the students about demon repellents and attractors.

X

"So, all the Exwires have to go too, huh?"

Midway through the Demon Pharmacology lesson, Shura –though Mon though of her as something else _entirely_ from the way she...dressed- waltzed into the room and sat on Yukio's desk, crossing her legs. She had told him and the class that they, the Exwires as well as a number of higher class exorcists had been called out to go to a remote village that was being tormented by a demon.

As soon as she had said that they were to go to a village and get rid of a demon, Rin jumped out of his seat and threw his hands into the air, yelling something about "finally!" He was probably excited to be going out into the field again.

After Shura told Yukio the details, she left saying, "we'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon, so all of ya better be ready by then!" Once the door closed behind her and everyone was paying attention to Yukio again –save Rin, who would probably never pay attention- he told everyone that tomorrow they would be given some time to get things ready before leaving.

With that, the lesson continued as normal, though Mon could've sworn she could feel an almost tingling feeling in the air. She thought that everyone must have been excited to be going and getting experience in being "on the job" so to speak.

On the outside, Mon probably seemed relatively calm –at least, as much as she could with trying to translate and keep up with the things going on around her- but really she was slightly more confused than normal. The most she had understood from what Shura and Yukio had said was that there was a demon and that they had to go to where it was. All in all, it didn't sound promising.

Mon had a feeling that nothing good would come from finding this demon, and she was probably right. She couldn't help but worry about what might happen, and seeing as she didn't quite understand everything that had been said about it, she was worried that she might have missed something important.

After a while, even with Mon worrying on the inside, what she considered the "normal" routine began to fall back into place for the class; Rin didn't concentrate, Izumo, Bon, Konekomaru and Takara seemed intent on listening and working, while Shima seemed to not care about the work and was trying his best to distract Mon beside him, too.

"Hey, Shima," Bon said, turning slightly to look at Shima. "Stop talkin' or you're going to start annoying her."

"Ah, right," he said to Bon, and turned to Mon. "Sorry 'bout that."

As Shima sighed and got back to working, Mon glanced at Bon. Just as she did she caught him glance at her; she couldn't help but look away quickly and feel her face colour as she kept her head down. She hoped no one noticed, especially Bon, though she wouldn't risk looking up to check whether he had or not.

_Annoying..._ Bon thought as he saw Mon look away from him as his eyes met hers. _Damn woman..._ Muttering something under his breath, Bon looked back to the book on demon repellents he had in front of him, though he was unable to concentrate on the text.

Ever since he had willingly picked Mon up and taken her back to her room, he found that she frustrated him more and more as time passed. Every time she ended up sitting next to him she was always so nervous, and when she asked him what something said or meant, she looked like she would be about to cry because of how nervous and even scared she was. It frustrated Bon to no end.

One thing that made it worse was every time Shima tried to flirt with her. It was strange that it would grate on his nerves so much when he never really gave a damn when Shima flirted with any other girl. Bon brushed it off as being because Mon could barely speak Japanese and he just didn't want to see some poor girl get caught up with Shima without realising what's going on.

No matter which way it was, Bon knew that Mon would always frustrate him, and that he would probably go on helping her despite that. He told himself that he would only help her so that eventually she would be able to leave him and the others alone. He would only help her so that she could do what she wanted without having to ask for an explanation or translation every five minutes.

That's exactly what he told himself, and that's exactly what he believed. At least, that's what he wanted to believe, though he'd never admit the annoying little bit of doubt that was sitting at the back of his mind to himself.

It was probably a good thing he wouldn't remember the dream he would have that night.

Coincidentally enough, Mon would have a dream that night as well, though it was different to Bon's; Mon's dream didn't seem to make sense to her. In it, she was sitting on a windowsill, staring out across thousands –maybe more- rice fields; they went as far as she could see. Shadows graced over the fields, black clouds rolled across to the horizon, the sun was such a dark crimson it was almost black.

Though Mon knew she was sitting on the windowsill, she couldn't move, not to look beside her, and not to look behind her. Her eyes were stuck on the writhing shadows; they moved and danced across the land as if they were demons, they seemed to laugh, to enjoy the coming of an inevitable storm. They seemed to dance closer and closer to the window Mon was sitting at, they seemed as if they wanted to torment her, to destroy her from the inside out.

It all seemed so real; the sick sweat that shined on her brow, the cold clammy feeling of her hands, the sinking feeling in her stomach telling her that disaster was imminent. Of all the feelings, the one that told her someone or something was behind her was the worst of all.

She could almost feel the hand reaching down to grab her on the shoulder, she felt someone standing close behind her; she felt a warm breath go down the back of her neck, causing a shiver to run down her spine. Her heart was beating so fast she could have sworn it was going at the speed of light; her eyes darted from place to place, but never away from the rice fields and the growing storm.

When Mon really did feel a touch on her shoulder it only took a moment for her to wake up with her hands over her mouth as she let out a silent scream. Her heart was beating like a hummingbird's wings, just like it was in the dream, her body was covered in a cold sweat and she had a moment of panic when she didn't recognise where she was.

Once she realised just where she was and what was happening, that it had only been a dream and that she was safe in her dorm at True Cross Academy, she let out a sigh of relief. _Not real..._ She though, flicking her blanket off and planting her feet on the floor. _Only a dream..._

Mon groaned as she stood up and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Without even looking to see if her roommate was still asleep, Mon left her room and headed down the hall to the communal bathroom with the intent of bringing herself back to reality.

The water flowed freely from the tap as she bent over the sink and splashed the water across her face, not bothering to try and keep her hair out of the way. As she gasped slightly and looked at herself in the mirror she noticed just how sickly the lighting in the bathroom made her look; it looked as if she had dark bags hanging under her eyes and it made her skin look paler than it actually was, her dark hair was sticking to the sides of her face and her brown eyes looked dull, lifeless. She thought she looked like a corpse.

Mon shuddered as she turned the faucet off and shook her hands dry, heading straight back to her room at a pace that was only just too quick; it was the pace of someone who thought they had just heard a sound behind them but wasn't sure if it was real or not.

Once she had gotten back to her room and into bed, she drew the covers up to her chin and lay on her side, her back to the wall. _What was that dream _about_?_ Was the one thought that drifted through her mind over, and over, and over. It floated through her mind, not fading in the least until Mon finally drifted back to sleep; thankfully, she didn't have another dream.

Muffling a gasp as he bolted upright in his bed, Bon looked around his dorm room. Konekomaru, his roommate was still asleep and it was still dark outside, probably extremely early morning. He sighed as he put his hand to his forehead and wondered, _what just happened?_ It seemed as though Bon had had a dream, or more likely a nightmare, though what it was and what happened in it left him the moment his eyes opened.

Giving one final glance around the room, he fell back onto his bed and tried to get the questions of what just happened out of his mind. It took a good long while of staring at the ceiling before he was able to doze back to sleep, and just like Mon, he didn't have another dream.

X

The next afternoon after everyone had gathered all the things they would need for the job they were about to embark on, all the Exwires and higher class exorcists met at the closest train station. When the Exwires arrived, Mon couldn't help but gawk at the number of exorcists.

There were only about forty to fifty exorcists there, and it didn't seem like there would be any more arriving, but either way Mon couldn't help but wonder just what kind of demon would require so many exorcists to get rid of it. She remembered how back in Xi'an, the largest number of exorcists that would go at a time was about fifteen.

By the time everyone had gotten onto the train, there were enough of them to almost completely fill up one carriage. The Exwires sat near the back, all of them only taking up one row of seats.

Sitting next to Takara with her bag on her lap, Mon couldn't help but think of just how much she disliked travelling. She despised public transportation like busses, trains and taxis, but she could deal with it; the only type of transport she could never get used to were planes. She was lucky she was able to last through the flights to Japan to begin with.

Sighing as she felt the train start to move, she opened her bag and pulled out a book her mother had given her a number of years ago. Its covers were battered and the pages were worn and almost tearing in some places, and Mon had read through it countless times. It was a book on demons, namely Chinese demons, but there were some that were from other places.

Opening it to a random page, Mon started to read and tried to ignore the feeling of the train moving below her.

From across the aisle Bon watched Mon as she read; he noticed just how concentrated she look on the battered old book she had in her hands, he also noticed that she looked paler than usual and that her hands were shaking slightly.

_Heh, she's scared,_ Bon thought as he watched her turn page after page of her book. _She's probably never even been to exorcise a demon before._ Despite the way Bon was thinking, he did realise that he felt slightly sorry for her; if she was getting nervous about a demon when she had those Shiki to command, what kind of Tamer was she? What kind of _exorcist_ would she be?

_Maybe she's not scared of the demon..._ Bon thought as he looked away from Mon and stared at the seat in front of him. _Maybe it's somethin' else..._ Shaking his head, Bon crossed his arms and tried to think of something else; by the time the exorcists had gotten to the village Bon hadn't been able to take his mind away from Mon, even with Rin acting like his usual idiot self beside him.

Even though he hadn't been able to take his mind away from Mon, he had for a moment wondered about the dream he had had the night before. He hadn't thought of it since he woke from it originally, but when he did remember about it he almost shuddered at the memory of what it made him feel when he woke up. Even if he couldn't remember what happened, he could at least remember that it hadn't been nice.

"Hmm? You okay, Bon?" Shima asked as he looked at his friend. "You don't look so good."

Bon looked at Shima, concern clearly written on his face. "Nah," he said, looking away and out the window at the moving landscape. "I'm okay."

"Okay then..."

_Yeah,_ Bon thought as he stared out at the landscape as it rushed by, his eyes not really seeing what was there at all. _I'm okay, but _she's_ not..._

When all the exorcists were off the train and standing on the platform, their bags at their feet, the ones in charge –seemingly Shura and Yukio- started to brief everyone present about what was going on. Yukio seemed calm, while Shura seemed to be the epitome of "wake me and die", though having been just woken up, she was not happy.

"Four-eyes," Shura said to Yukio as she glared at the assembled exorcists with disdain and held her hand above the tattoo like marks on her chest. "You explain while I skewer the bastard that woke me up."

As the exorcists attempted to shrink away from Shura's wrath, Yukio propped his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Miss Kirigakure, you would do no such thing." He ignored Shura's annoyed complaints and turned to the exorcists, beginning to explain the situation. "We are heading to Kurogawa village to exorcise a demon that has been plaguing the villagers for quite a while. We know that it has been the cause of the storms and lightning induced fires, so I have a hunch as to which demon it is."

_Demon? Lightning?_ Mon tilted her head at an angle as she tried to translate what Yukio was saying. _I really need to work on understanding what these people are saying, it seems..._ She shook her head and continued to listen to Yukio, ignoring what the other Exwires were doing around her.

"I wonder what demon it is?" Rin muttered, to no one in particular. "Well whatever," he grinned as he lifted his wooden sword onto his shoulder. "I'll beat it no matter what it is!"

Bon scoffed from beside Rin. "Yeah right," he said, not even looking at Rin as he glared at him. "You wouldn't be able to defeat a Coal Tar with that sword of yours. Give it up already."

"Here we go again..." Shima muttered, hanging his head as he stood behind Bon and Rin as they quarrelled.

"Also," Yukio continued, ignoring the growling argument between Bon and Rin –though Shura didn't seem to be very good at ignoring them and started to yell at them, mostly Rin about shutting the hell up when his superiors are talking. "We will be staying at an inn in the village. The Okami(1) has been injured during one of the storms and will not be able to help us too much; please keep that in mind."

"This will be...interesting..." Mon muttered as she followed everyone out of the train station to where they would wait for their last mode of transport before reaching the remote village by the name of Kurogawa.

Mon's hands were still shaking slightly and she knew that she must have looked sick to anyone who bothered to look at her, even if she couldn't see herself. She was too caught up in her thoughts to notice Bon was beside her, and that he was glancing at her continually.

_That chick,_ Bon thought as he waited beside Mon. _She's just as scared as she was on the train..._

Shima who wasn't that far behind Bon looked between him and Mon with a smirk on his face. "Hey, Bon," he said, grabbing his friend's attention. "Why're you looking at Beppin-san like that?"

Bon was shocked by the suddenness of Shima question, and all he could articulate was, "what?" as his attention was taken away from the girl in question entirely. To his chagrin he could have sworn he felt his cheeks redden; if anyone noticed, they didn't comment.

"Shima," Konekomaru said from the other side of Bon, a frown on his face. "Don't ask such lewd questions."

Shima just muttered something, though Bon wasn't paying attention to either of his friends or anyone else for that matter. His eyes were on Mon as they came to a stop in front of the bus they were to take the rest of the way to Kurogawa village. The look on Mon's face could have made Bon laugh.

When Mon saw the bus she would have guessed that her face went even paler as she stared at it; she couldn't help but wonder just why they couldn't use one of those damned keys everyone was always carrying to get to Kurogawa. _Well,_ she reasoned as she stepped onto the bus, after Shiemi and before Bon. _Do they even have a key to get to that place?_

Mon could almost see her inner self crying at the knowledge of having to not only go to Kurogawa by multiple modes of transportation, but also that everyone would have to return to True Cross the same way. _I'm doomed..._ She thought as she sat down in a seat near the back of the bus.

As Mon gazed out the window of the bus as it started to move, she almost had a heart attack when someone sat down beside her.

"Hi."

Jumping in her seat slightly, Mon stared at the person who was filling the seat beside her. _I'm not just doomed now,_ she thought, quickly looking away from him and looking out the window. _I'm going to be eaten and digested by whatever demon we're here to get rid of, too!_

Nervously, Mon looked back to Bon who had been the one to sit next to her. She blushed as she saw the look he was giving her; he looked like he thought there was something wrong with her head, as if she had just said she was a mermaid and lived in the local fish pond. Mon was embarrassed and after a moment of awkward silence she settled with saying "hello" before looking back out the window; she hoped that the colour in her cheeks wasn't as noticeable as it felt.

_Hell,_ Bon thought as Mon said hello and turned away from him again. _Damn woman...why'd I even sit here?_ Sighing as he tried his best to find something to look at other than the girl next to him, Bon tried not to notice the look Shima was giving him from across the aisle of the bus. He was looking at him as if to say, "c'mon, do something! She's sitting right _there_!" Konekomaru who was sitting beside Shima was ignoring him.

The bus ride to the inn was a relatively short one, though Mon would've said it had taken an eternity; to her the swaying motion of the bus and the speed at which the outside world was passing by at did not reassure her.

They left the hustle and bustle of the small train station behind, the outside world become less and less crowded and more and more secluded. The bus passed through two towns before driving through what seemed like miles and miles of rice fields; there were a number of huts along the way, and there were some people out, most seeming like they were either heading to or away from the next town which sat fairly close to all the fields, at least within walking distance. That town was Kurogawa village.

It didn't take long for the bus to stop near the heart of the town, outside the front of a fairly large traditional Japanese building which could only have been the inn.

"I'm never going to make it to my sixtieth birthday at this rate(2)!" Mon muttered as she stumbled off the bus and towards the front of the inn, trying her best not to get too acquainted with the ground.

As Rin stepped off the bus after Shiemi, he watched as Mon swayed slightly, her face still extremely pale. "What's up with her?" He asked, shoving one of his hands deep into his pocket while he held his wooden sword against his shoulder with the other.

Most of the other Exwires who had congregated together shrugged. "Beats me," Izumo said, shaking her head as she pushed past the others and towards the front of the inn.

It was near dark when the exorcists pilled through the door of the inn, one after the other. The sky was full of whirling clouds; the colour was turning a bruised purple, the horizon tinged with red and orange as the sun set, the air was humid, and there was not a single gust of wind; a sure sign that a storm was coming. The exorcists could feel it in the air, and it seemed that the few town's folk that were out knew it too.

"There's hardly anyone outside at all..." One of the exorcists commented as he walked through the door, a nervous quaver in his voice. He turned slightly to get one last look at the outside world, as if it would probably be the last time he could see it. "Do you think it's because of all the storms?"

"Well," Shura said as she dumped her bag into the hands of the nearest exorcist –much to that exorcist's confusion, as he just had a bag appear in his hands. "That's what we're here to figure out." Yawning and stretching her hands above her head, Shura seemed to almost be over the fact that she was woken up from the train ride.

As the exorcists shuffled around in the entrance way of the inn, an elderly looking man came skittering around a corner with his hands woven together, a worried crease pressing his brow. He was wearing traditional Japanese clothing –which Mon found quite funny on that man- though he looked more like the kind of man who would be working in a big company office; he could have easily donned a grey suit, held some files in his arms and be a harassed public servant.

"Hello," the man said, bowing deeply as he stood in front of everyone. "My name is...is Yamada Seiji. It is an honour to have exorcists such as yourselves to...to come here and help our village."

Shura waved her hands as if to dismiss the statement. "Not at all, not at all! None of us could have said no to help a village such as yours."

_And just think,_ Bon thought, looking at Shura incredulously. _Back when she was explaining the situation she said she didn't wanna be here at all..._

"Um, yes, thank you." Seiji muttered, looking towards the floor. "You all should know that the Okami isn't very well at the moment, correct?" Seiji lifted his head and looked imploringly at the people gathered, as if to say 'please don't make me explain much more!'

"Yes," Yukio said, stepping forward, his stone mask of seriousness in place as always. "We know, now if you would be so kind as to inform us as to our rooming situation...we need time to get ready for what we'll have to do not too far into the future."

"Oh, yes!" Seiji replied, reaching into the depths of his clothing. He then handed Yukio a list which he had extracted from some place on his person. "There are not meant to be any other tenants while you are all here, so...so there should be no inconveniences in that form."

Nodding his thanks, Yukio turned to the gathered persons while Seiji shuffled away. Once Yukio had finished explaining and given each group of exorcists their room keys, they all headed off to various places throughout the inn; Mon was to room with Izumo, Shiemi and Shura. In a way, Mon would have almost been happier to hop on a plane and fly to America –and have to speak another language she didn't know that well, too. Almost.

X

Before they had been in their room for five minutes, Mon could tell it would not be easy having to room with three other girls; Shura mostly, though. It seemed that Izumo had opened a cupboard and looked at the futons(3) that were stored away in there and picked out one for herself. She had probably thought it was the better of the ones in there and claimed it so no one else could.

By the time Shura had excused herself to "get some supplies from down the road" –most likely going to get some alcohol- everyone could feel the storm gathering not too far away. When Mon joined Shiemi in looking out the window, the scene she saw was both beautiful and frightening; the room she and the others were staying in had a view of a few rows of buildings –probably houses- before some fields going off into the distance; rice fields to be exact. Mon guessed that their room was at the back of the inn.

Above the fields and houses the sky was boiling, clouds were crashing into each other, purple and black covered the whole of the sky, from horizon to horizon; shadows flew over the land, following the clouds like legions and legions of demons, thunder sang in the distance like the grumbling of a long forgotten monster, lightning clashed and lit the distance in brilliant frames of light. It was the perfect storm.

"This doesn't feel right..." Shiemi murmured, lifting her little green familiar up to the window to get a view. "Does it, Nii?"

"Hmm..."Mon muttered, her brow furrowing as she thought. _What have we gotten ourselves into?_ She had the passing thought that what she was seeing was familiar, though she disregarded it when she couldn't quite remember what from.

The door slammed as Shura strode back into the room making everyone jump. "Just great," she muttered, sitting down by the wall, one of her arms resting across one of her legs. "That's one hellofa storm we've got coming." She nodded towards to window as she spoke, an annoyed frown crossing her face.

Izumo, Mon and Shiemi shared the same expression as they looked out to the boiling, bubbling sky; they looked worried.

"This storm isn't going to be pretty, is it?"

Breaking through the argument that had already broken out between Bon and Rin –as they were stuck with rooming with each other, along with Shima, Konekomaru and Takara- a brilliant flash of lightning and a clap of rolling thunder flowed in from the distant horizon.

"Wow!" Rin jumped as the thunder rumbled over head. "That's amazing!"

"It's a big storm heading this way," Bon muttered as he straightened up. "Do you think it's the demon?"

Konekomaru shrugged from where he was sitting, a book in his lap. "Maybe," he said as he lowered his gaze back to the book.

"How are the girls dealing with the storm, I wonder?" Shima muttered, yawning. He had a grin on his face as he lowered himself down beside Konekomaru, probably thinking of how the girls would be worried about the rumbling thunder and flashing lightning. "Maybe we should go and comfort them..."

Shaking his head, Bon said, "Did you forget that Miss Kirigakure's there as well? She'll probably try and kill us if we even thought of doin' anything."

"Yeah," Rin muttered as all the possibilities of what Shura could do flying through his mind; he felt like he would be in pain even just by thinking about it. "She'd be pissed alright..."

Sighing, Shima agreed and leant back against the wall. "Well what're we supposed to do then?" He asked, looking to Bon.

"I don't know," Bon said, glaring half-heartedly, while thinking, _I wonder if they're okay?_ Even though his thoughts may have been directed at all the girls in general, there was one whom his thoughts went to specifically. Shaking his head to rid himself of all similar thoughts, he settled with sitting down and listening as the storm gathered its strength.

All over the village, and even in the scattered huts around the outskirts of Kurogawa, children were cowering in their rooms or with their parents, adults tried to comfort the younger ones and calm their animals as they barked and growled at the sky as the rolling blackness came closer; the elderly talked of the recent series of storms being the worst they could ever remember.

The clouds came closer and closer, the wind blew along the rice fields of Kurogawa, and it was easy to imagine it blowing through the streets of the town, knocking garbage cans over and making the wires of the telephone poles waver. The moon was invisible behind the thick cloud cover, the thunder growled like a mad animal and the lightning flashed like an old camera set to blind everyone.

In one particular room in the inn where the exorcists were staying, an elderly woman was lying asleep on a futon. Her silvery hair was brushed away from her face, though strands of hair had stuck to the sides of her face and forehead; her breathing was slightly laboured and rasped in her chest and every now and again she would shudder.

Sliding the door closed behind him, Seiji sighed to himself as he shuffled away from the Okami's room. He had been checking on her every couple of hours or so, and every morning and evening he would have a local doctor take a look at her. It seemed that no matter what, Hanako, the Okami just wasn't getting any better.

"She has to be sick now..." Lowering his head as he walked, Seiji couldn't help but wonder if the exorcists would be able to help or not. He had heard that exorcists would be able to help them and stop whatever was causing the storms, but he still wasn't convinced. What if they couldn't stop it? Then what?

"Will the exorcists really be able to help us?"

Jumping slightly, Seiji turned to see Tadao, one of the young men who worked at the inn. He was standing by the Okami's door, one hand resting against the screen, the other down by his side; his light brown hair which was normally held in a low pony tail was out, shadowing his face as he stared at Seiji. "Do you really think they can help?" He repeated, his dark eyes sparkling.

"If...if it's really a demon," Seiji said, looking Tadao up and down. "Then I think they can. Are you okay? You...you look stressed."

Tadao shook his head slowly. "No, no, I'm fine," he said. "I'm just a little tired."

Before Seiji could comment or say anything more, Tadao turned and started off down the rest of the hall, his hair swinging against his back slightly. Once Tadao was out of sight, Seiji let out a sigh and continued on his way back to his room; it was getting late and the storm was getting louder and more noticeable. The only thing anyone could do was wait it out like they had with all the others.

Even as Seiji entered his room and began to prepare his futon, he couldn't help but feel as if something was wrong. His mind kept going back to Tadao and the way he had acted, the way he had simply stood there and stared at Seiji as if he wasn't really seeing him.

"_Will the exorcists really be able to help us?"_ That was what he said, and he had said it in such a way, too...

As Seiji changed and crawled into his futon, rain began to pour from the sky.

Finis

**Footnotes:  
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1 "Okami" the Okami is like the landlady or the owner of an inn.

2 "_I'm never going to make it to my sixtieth birthday at this rate!_" In China, turning sixty is a great thing; when someone turns sixty they have lived through a full cycle of the zodiacs (all zodiacs and all the elements as well). Wouldn't it be awesome to live to 120?

3 "Futon" I'm sure most people would know what a futon is in Japan, but just to make sure, this isn't the type of couch that folds out to make a bed, it's a type of "bedroll" if you will, that is a traditional Japanese bed. Feel free to Google if you want to know more about it.

**A/N: Thank you for reading to the end of this, and there's really nothing else to say other than please review and tell me what you think.**


	3. III

**A/N: Well...this chapter came out a hell of a lot quicker than I thought it would...then again, I do go back to school after the term holidays tomorrow, so I might as well get another one out, right? Anyway, hopefully after this I should be averaging about one chapter every two weeks if I meet the goal I've set myself...my sister will be making sure of that, hopefully. There is also one footnote in this chapter, so be 'ware of that :D Well...I feel like saying "Merry Christmas"...I don't know why, but I'll say it anyway.**

**MERRY CHRISTMAS! "Multiple exclamation marks are the sure sign of a diseased mind." - Terry Pratchett**

**Summary: **Mon, a Chinese student recently transferred to True Cross Academy; Bon, a hot-headed genius of a student whose silently implied job is to stop Mon from getting too far lost in translation; Furfur, a demon with a score to settle with a certain remote village. Put them together, what do you get? This story.****

****Disclaimer: I do not own any _Blue Exorcist_ characters that may or may not appear. The ones that do belong to me are the ones that don't belong to Kazue Kato. Got it? Good :D****

Dragon Tamer  
>Chapter Three<p>

Throughout the entire night, no one got much sleep; Shura managed to sleep a little, but was woken up not long after she drifted off by the sound of a tree falling somewhere in the distance. Shiemi and Mon sat up for most of the night, not able to even drift off like Shura or Izumo; they said little and did little, though there seemed to be the mutual agreement not to try and look out the window.

Not long after Shura drifted back off after the fall of the tree woke her, Mon sat up and headed towards the window. Before she was able to have a look, she felt a tug on the shirt she wore when she slept; Shiemi was the one to tug on Mon's shirt.

Shiemi shook her head and said something about not looking out the window and sat down against the wall. When Mon joined her she smiled and tried at conversation, even talking with her little Green Man familiar, though there wasn't much that any of them could say as the storm raged outside. After some time of awkward silence –as much silence could be had with the wind howling outside, leaves and twigs flying and hitting the window, rain pouring down, the sound of thunder and the reluctant flashes of lightning- either one or both of the girls managed to fall asleep, at least for some time.

In the boys' room it seemed that Konekomaru managed to sleep most of the night, though Shima tossed and turned, he was able to sleep somewhat peacefully; Bon and Rin on the other hand didn't seem to get any sleep just like a number of the other people scattered about the inn and village. Rin was stuck tossing and turning, kicking his blanket off and rolling sideways on his futon muttering to himself about how he "needed his damn sleep".

Bon, compared to Rin was mostly still as he lay on his back, staring up at the roof and listening to the rumbling thunder and the pouring rain, watching the murky darkness that shadowed the room as if they were demons. The sound of the rain pelting the window and the land outside, and the sound of the wind and the thunder did nothing to ease his mind.

"Someone turn the freakin' storm off, will ya!" Rin half yelled, half muttered as he turned over once again, breaking through Bon's thoughts as he groaned and grumbled about the storm. "I swear the damn building's moving! Crazy freakin' wind...Stupid rain..."

Bon sighed as Rin continued to grumble and complain. Rolling over onto his side he tried his best to block out the sounds from the storm and the sounds of his roommates sleeping, though he couldn't stop a number of thoughts from surfacing, one being him wondering about the dream he had had the night before. What was it about? What had happened? He still didn't know the answer to any of the questions in his mind, though he could guess that they would probably not be pleasant if and when he found out.

By the time the storm settled and some of the higher classed exorcists went around and woke everyone the next morning, Bon had managed to get at least a little bit of sleep, restless though it was.

X

"C'mon lead-heads, it's time to great the new day!"

Groaning as she opened her eyes, Mon saw Shura standing in the middle of the room. She was wearing her usual..."attire" –or lack thereof- of short denim shorts, a bikini of sorts, boots, and a jacket, and she was looking at all three of the girls with laughter obviously bubbling behind her relatively straight face. She continued to hassle the girls out of bed, probably making them suffer the way she had when she had to wake up.

"Hurry up, hurry up! We've got some important work to do." She said, resting her hands on her hips; her hair was held up in its usual pony tail, though there were unusually dark bags under her eyes, and she definitely looked tired. It was obvious she didn't get a lot of sleep that night either.

As Mon stood up and stretched her arms out above her head, her joints popping, she noticed that she had not slept on the futon like she had originally thought; she had in fact fallen asleep whilst she was leaning against the wall, under the window with Shiemi. As she shook her hair out of her eyes and tried her best to brush it back without the help of a hair brush, she remembered, shuddering, just how violent the storm that night had been.

Once everyone was up and dressed in what could be considered decent clothing, Izumo, Mon, Shiemi and Shura left the room and headed to what could only be the front side of the inn. Izumo asked, "What are we doing?" her oddly shaped eyebrows drawn together in confusion as she glanced at the gathered exorcists. "Are we going to try and find the demon?"

"Not quite," Shura replied as the girls joined the other Exwires and she stood in front of the exorcists. "Alright," she called, trying to get everyone's attention. Once everyone was looking at her, she placed her hands on her hips and proceeded to tell everyone what they were to do for that day, and it seemed, the next few days as well.

By the time she finished her instructions and everyone had been sent off to do what they were assigned, the sun had risen enough for most of the village and the outskirts to be covered in light. It was obvious how much damage the night's storm had caused, even with the previous damage still yet to be fully cleaned away; there were some trees blown over, their trunks split open, broken and splintered where they lay, there were small and large branches and leaves everywhere, water ran freely where ever it was able to, telephone poles were down, glass was everywhere, and it was obvious that a lot of the rice fields in the outskirts were destroyed. All in all, it was just general destruction.

As the Exwires split up into the groups they were forced into, every one of them looking half dead, the most they could do was lurch off grumbling about what they had to do. It had been decided by the exorcists in charge –namely Yukio and Shura- that everyone, including the underlings were to go from house to house, shop to shop, and person to person and gather as much information as they could about the happenings of late.

The sky above was a bright azure blue, it seemed that the clouds that were left over from the night's storm were going to disperse by the afternoon, though even though the sun shone as brightly as it normally did, the air was cold and still; it made everyone wonder whether there would be another storm later.

It seemed that none of the exorcists noticed the set of dark eyes that were watching them from the inn, and no one noticed when they disappeared just as everyone started to disperse.

All eight of the underlings were split up into groups of two, though most of them didn't seem to be very happy with their partners; Izumo was stuck with Takara and his puppet, obviously much to her distaste, Shima was paired with Mon –making Mon quite concerned for her safety and maybe even her sanity- and Rin was paired with Bon. Not surprising that they started fighting straight away. The only two who didn't mind being dropped together were Konekomaru and Shiemi.

Everyone had gone off in different directions, and Bon and Rin had talked to the few people that walked past them on the streets. It seemed that no one had any information, that or they didn't want to talk to "outsiders".

When Rin and Bon walked into what seemed to be a shop –it was small, though it was obviously a shop as there were things hanging in the one window at the front obviously merchandise, held by string and such, and the magazine rack out the front helped- they were met by a large, burly man with a shaved head and a number of tattoos covering the skin of his arms. He glared at the pair as they cautiously stepped into the shop, their boots making the glass, which had fallen through the broken window on the floor crack. He was wearing a pair of ordinary pants, a dirtied white singlet, and sandals. He looked pissed.

"Hey, Suguro," Rin whispered, turning to Bon with his hand in front of his mouth as he spoke. "Do you think this guy could be a Yakuza?"

Bon looked at Rin incredulously. "Of course not," he said as he looked back to the man glaring at them. "Yakuza, in a town like this? Besides, he hasn't got enough tattoos."

"Well then," Rin said, looking back to the shop owner. "What do you want us to do?"

Further away Mon and Shima were going from person to person –at least, the people they could find-, asking if anyone needed any help cleaning up or if they had seen anything strange. From the first one they talked to, to the most recent one it was surprising that almost everyone rejected their help and said that they hadn't seen anything; they seemed to not want to have anything to do with the exorcists, no matter which ones they were. The few times when a small number of children went up to them and tried to talk with them, people who could only be the children's parents would quickly shoo them away, muttering something under their breath or telling their child "not to talk to those people".

Sighing, the pair left after another rejection to their offer for help, only to turn to the other side of the road and see something that made them stare in confusion. The small building they were facing looked like a shop, though there was a broken through window and what seemed to be merchandise scattered around; that wasn't what attracted their attention though, it was the fact that Rin had just tripped out the door and landed on his arse, yelling something about how it wasn't his fault.

Following not far after Rin, Bon strode out of the store and stood over him, a clear air of menace about him. It was obvious that Rin had done something, and by the look on both Bon's face and the face of the shop owner who had booted Rin out of the store before disappearing back inside proved that it mustn't have been good.

"You idiot!" Bon yelled at Rin as he pulled himself to his feet. "What the hell'd you do that for?"

Growling, Rin glared straight back at Bon, obviously just as annoyed as the other boy was. "I didn't mean to! I didn't know that shelf was being held up by that bit of wood!"

"It was obvious!"

The two boys continued to glare and argue with each other in the middle of the road as Mon and Shima watched on. Shima laughed nervously as he watched the argument, and Mon simply stared, slightly dumbfounded; it seemed that of the few people that were out and about, none wanted to take any notice of the two adolescents and just kept on doing what they were doing, not heeding the fight that was surely going to break out.

"C'mon you two," Shima finally said, holding his hands up in front of him in a gesture of surrender –or maybe "don't hurt me". "We should get back to work."

"I can't take it any more, Shima," Bon growled, balling his fists and cracking his knuckles as he glared daggers at Rin. "If I have to stay with this guy any longer I'll probably kill him...and what're you doing here, anyway?"

Shima laughed before he stepped forward and grabbed Rin by the arm, dragging him away from Bon. "We've been rejected from helping and no one's told us anything useful, but don't worry about it," he said as he started to walk away from Mon and Bon, much to their confusion. "I'll pair up with Rin now, so you two can work together, 'kay?" When he said the last part, he winked at Bon as if to say, "Now's your chance!"

Both Bon and Mon stared after Shima and Rin –with Rin yelling and complaining along the way- with something akin to shock and confusion on both their faces. _Well,_ Mon thought, glancing at Bon beside her. _This is...not good._

Bon scowled and grabbed Mon around the wrist, dragging her away from the middle of the road and away from the shop he and Rin had just been in. From what Mon could tell, they were heading away from the main part of town and towards the outskirts, namely a small wooded area which went all along the side of a number of rice fields; it wasn't too far away from the inn, but in the opposite direction to the way they had come into town by.

After a couple of minutes of walking they reached the edge of the town. Ahead of then there was just the wooded area which eventually thinned out to the rice fields, behind them, not too far away was the town.

Mon could feel her stomach flipping and her face reddening as Bon pulled her towards the edge of the trees; they didn't say a word to each other, and by the time they got to the tree line both their faces were tinted with a bit of red and there was an obviously awkward air about the both of them. Looking around, anyone would have been able to tell how much the storms had affected the wooded areas and the rice fields.

"Have...have you found anything out?" Mon asked, her brow creasing in concentration as she tried her best to speak in Japanese. "About the demon?"

"Heh," Bon muttered as he wiped the back of his hand across his forehead and looked into the trees, his eyes narrowing. "The most we could get out of the shop owner before that _idiot_ Okumura messed everything up was that there's been some weird animals around this area lately." Shaking his head he looked back to Mon, only to raise his eyebrows at the expression on her face.

"What?" She asked a clear look of incomprehension on her face.

Sighing, Bon repeated what he said again, albeit a bit slower and –he hoped- clearer. After a moment's pause, Mon's face lit up in understanding. She said something in Chinese before smiling at Bon. _This girl..._ He thought, feeling his cheeks reddening as he looked away from her. He couldn't help it, her pale skin, the strange writing on her arms she used to summon Shikigami, her dark hair –which there was too much of for someone of her stature, in Bon's opinion- her oddly light brown eyes. Bon was aware of it all.

"You go over there," Bon stuttered, pointing away and into the trees. "I'll look over this way. Don't wander too far away." He turned away from Mon and headed in the opposite direction to her, all the while trying to ignore any and all thoughts concerning her.

As Mon headed away into the shade of the trees, she closed her eyes and paused underneath a particularly large tree and breathed in deeply. She had always loved the smell and taste of fresh air; when she had lived in Xi'an with her mother she lived in a cramped little apartment in one of the poorer places in the city, she had only just managed to afford going to an exorcists' school. The most opportunities she had gotten for going anywhere where the air wasn't completely polluted was when she had visited her father and brother in Japan a few times.

As she opened her eyes and started walking again, she couldn't help but think that the fact that she would be living in such a beautiful place, with such clean air –at least compared to China's- seemed almost unbelievable.

"Ah!"

Throwing her hands out to catch herself as she hit the ground, Mon hissed in pain as her palms grazed the earth. As she turned onto her back and sat up, rubbing her shoulder lightly, she looked back to see what it was that she had tripped on. There was nothing there.

"What?" She muttered to herself as she picked herself up off the ground, brushing the dirt from the clothes she was wearing. "But I could've sworn..." After a moment's hesitation, Mon shook her head and turned away from where she had tripped and headed off again, completely dismissing what had just happened as her being clumsy.

After what felt like forever of searching, Mon found something, though what she found scared her more than anything.

Bon turned away from the rice fields he was heading for when he heard the scream. To him it sounded like something straight out of hell, something that would call demons and monsters towards it at a frenzy pace. He turned on his heels and started off at a run towards the sound; he guessed it was Mon.

By the time he got to where she was he was breathing heavily and sweat was running down his face, but when he saw Mon and what she had seen he froze dead on the spot feeling as if ice had been shot through his veins. Mon was sitting against a tree, her whole body shaking and her eyes wide and frightened; what was in front of her was a deer. It seemed like a normal forest hart that is, until Bon saw its face.

It had three eyes, two normal and one third one in the centre of its forehead. The eye was completely black, no whites to it at all, though it was shot through with dark red veins. The sight of that deer, that _eye_ froze Bon in place, he couldn't move and he couldn't think straight.

Steam was rolling of the flanks of the deer as if it was a cold winter's morning, its hooves knocked out clots of dirt and grass as it champed the ground, all three of the eyes rolled in their sockets, looking at both Bon and Mon in turn, its snorting breaths had the odour of rotting meat. It seemed to have almost an intelligent air about it, as if it was calculating and mocking the pair.

_Come on!_ He thought, gritting his teeth as he stared at the thing in front of him. He looked to Mon as she stared at the "deer" as well, clearly not completely aware of what was going on. Bon could tell she was scared as anything, and he was grateful that at that moment the monstrosity of a deer turned and in a flurry of hooves and dirt clots, galloped off.

Bon fell to his knees, his legs no longer able to support him. He looked at Mon where she sat, her back against a tree trunk and her legs pulled up to her chest; her face was buried behind her legs, her hair was sticking about as if she had just woken up, her clothes were covered in dirt and twigs and her whole body was shaking. Bon was just glad she was okay.

_What was that?_ He thought as Mon collapsed.

X

By the time Bon was able to get Mon back to the inn and to her room, the sun was past its pinnacle, though it was still relatively warm. Just as Bon was about to head through the front of the inn, Shura came up behind him mumbling about the weather, though when she saw that Bon was carrying Mon –who was clearly out of it, albeit breathing softly and calmly despite how she looked- she left almost immediately; she said something about going to get Yukio.

Once he had set out a futon, Bon laid Mon down on it, brushing some of the mess that was her hair out of her face, his hands still shaking. It seemed that Mon was calm in her sleep, even if she did look like a complete mess; Bon couldn't help but find it surprising that Mon hadn't even tried to use her Shiki against that deer. But then again, she was probably just as frozen by the look of that thing as Bon was.

X

"So? Will Beppin-san be okay?"

Sighing as he closed the door behind him, Yukio turned to face the small gathering of people in the hallway; it consisted of all of four people: Shima, Konekomaru, Rin and Shiemi. All four of them had concern clearly written on their faces. The moment they heard what had happened to Mon and Bon with that "messed up deer", as Bon had put it, they had gone straight to Mon's room to make sure she was okay.

"She's fine," Yukio said as he brushed past everyone, heading towards another part of the inn. "She'll wake up soon, she was probably just shocked."

As Yukio slid open a screen door, the heated conversation within the room ceased and everyone who was inside turned to look to the door. There was a large number of exorcists in the room, all seated on cushions on the tatami floor around a low table; all of them had been arguing, and most looked annoyed and confused, especially Shura.

"Yo, Scaredy-Cat Four-Eyes!" She called to Yukio as she leant back with her hands out behind her to hold herself up. "Is the Onishi girl okay?"

Yukio nodded as he took a seat at one end of the low table, the others who had followed after him doing the same. "She's okay." He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose as he turned to look at Bon who was sitting a bit further down. He folded his arms as he said, "Suguro, could you tell us what happened? Without"- at this point he shot the other exorcists in the room, the ones who had been arguing, a look- "everyone interrupting?"

Bon nodded and unfolded his arms. What followed was an explanation of what had transpired in that little bit of woods on the outskirts of the village; he explain how he paired up with Mon once Rin and Shima went off in the other direction, he said how he and Mon had split up once they reached the trees to see if they could find anything strange like what the store owner had told him and Rin. When he got to telling them how he had heard Mon scream and saw the deer standing there, kicking up the dirt and grass where it stood, he almost gave up on the telling of events to simply force himself to forget that thing. Too bad he would probably never be able to forget the third eye, the image of that shining, black and bloodshot orb in the deer's forehead.

Once he finished talking there was nothing but silence for a while; even the ones who had been interrupting so enthusiastically before were silent. Everyone's eyes were either on Bon or Yukio, or looking down at the table as if they had suddenly found something amazingly interesting there.

"What do we do?" An exorcist who looked to be no more than twenty-five asked, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, worry creasing her brow.

Yukio sighed and shook his head. "We will send out a team to investigate that wooded area and see if they can come up with anything related to this deer." He looked at Shura who looked back, a stony glare on her face. "Kirigakure will head the team, and she will be the one to report back as soon as anything is found or not."

Shura sighed and threw her hands in the air, dramatically waving them about as she complained and argued with Yukio about her position as the leader of the team. Her argument though, was cut short when the door slid open and all heads turned to look at who it was that was standing there. Tadao was standing in the doorway, his hair now pulled back into a low ponytail; he was carrying an envelope with the word "urgent" clearly scrolled across it in messy handwriting.

Tadao nodded his head and in a monotonous tone, he said, "I'm sorry for interrupting; Mister Yamada told me to give this to the one in charge right away."

Without a word Yukio stood up from where he was sitting and walked to where Tadao was standing in the doorway. He nodded as he took the envelope from Tadao and turned around as he left, sliding the door shut behind him. Yukio didn't even bother to return to his seat as he rather roughly tore open the envelope, shook what was inside out, and began to read what was on the paper.

It didn't take long for a frown to cross his face; it was almost a scowl, really. It was obvious that all those present were curious as to what was written on the piece of paper, though only Rin was brave enough to ask.

"Hey, Yukio," He said, staring at his brother, a slightly confused look on his face. "What's it say?"

Yukio sighed exasperatedly and tossed the piece of paper to Shura. As Shura began to read it, a look of annoyance crossing her features and Yukio said, "It's a letter from Seiji, the one who greeted us yesterday. He said that he had to return to his hometown for an indefinite amount of time." He turned slightly and looked at the closed door behind him for a moment before he continued, "He also said to keep an eye on Tadao, the one who brought the letter here just now."

Rin gave his brother a confused look while most of the other exorcists just looked at either Yukio or the door as if Tadao was still standing there, curiosity and worry clearly written across their faces. No one spoke for a while, and the room was filled with a full silence that left a blanket of awkwardness over everything. It was obvious that almost everyone wanted to say something but were too concerned about the answers.

One question that was clearly felt in the air was, "Why?" Why did Seiji leave at such an important time? _Why_ did they have to keep an eye on Tadao? He was just a worker there at the inn, right? Another thought that probably would have crossed the minds of a few of the exorcists with both more experience and quicker thinking capability was, "what if he's possessed?" What if indeed.

Not long after the letter was brought to them, the exorcists dispersed to whatever parts of the inn they were staying in, talking amongst themselves, tossing theories from one to the other, wondering aloud what could be going on. A common theme running amongst them was that they wondered just how serious this demon was going to be; they had been called out to Kurogawa to exorcise a demon, though they didn't know which one it was yet, they didn't expect for everything to go smooth as silk, though they didn't expect for a pair of Exwires to encounter something that was obviously not natural.

Yukio sighed, frustrated as he watched the exorcists leave, though he stayed put where he stood by the door. Propping his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose as per habit, he stopped Bon just as he was about to leave, placing his hand on his shoulder. "Suguro," he said, smiling tightly. "May I talk with you for a moment?"

Nodding, Bon stepped back from the door and followed Yukio to sit down at the low table once again. Curiously, he said, "What is it, Mister Okumura?" He was still slightly anxious, still slightly jumpy from all that had transpired, so when he saw the serious look on Yukio's face, he couldn't help but wonder if something might be wrong, at least, more wrong than it already was.

Yukio looked Bon in the eye, his arms folded across his chest. After a moment he took a deep breath and, once he let it out, said, "There is something I want you to do, it's just as important as what Kirigakure and the other exorcists will be doing tomorrow, in fact I might say it was more important."

As Bon looked at him, speechless, he wondered just what it was that could be more important. Not that it really mattered anyway, he was just slightly shocked that he would be asked to do something if it was so "important"; why not get a more experienced, and not to mention higher ranked exorcist to do whatever it was if it was vital. Simply nodding his head, Bon waited for Yukio to continue, watching as he unfolded one of his arms and brushed his hand over his face as he sighed once again.

It was obvious Yukio was frustrated, even if it was only their first real day in Kurogawa. There had been some interesting occurrences after all, and events such as those tend to take a toll on anyone. As Yukio explained what it was Bon was meant to do, he couldn't help but shake his head on the inside, wondering if he was fated to become something akin to a baby sitter.

_I'm never gonna get away from that girl at this rate._ He thought, listening intently to what Yukio had to say.

Tadao's feet fell lightly against the floor, only making a muffled shuffling as he made his way down the hallway as if he were in a trance. The moment he had given the letter to that young exorcist he had left, going straight away to Hanako, the Okami's room. When he slid the door back as quietly as he could, looking through what little of a gap there was, what he saw made him smile slightly.

Hanako was lying on her side, her white hair splayed around her head like a pale halo. Every time she coughed her body quaked almost as if in death throes, her face was flushed and damp in a cold sweat, it was obvious her eyes were rolling wildly in their sockets, even if her eyelids protected them. Her breathing was laboured and her body looked frail. Tadao was growing more confident as Hanako was growing weaker.

He took everything in stride, at least that's what he thought he did. When there was news of this "demon" somewhere in the village he thought that it indeed might be time for him to take action. He had always hated that village, ever since he was young. It seemed as if his feelings towards Kurogawa hadn't changed since he was a child, if anything they had grown stronger. He planned to use the demon to the best of his ability; it didn't matter whether or not the exorcists would get in his way.

Once he had finished watching Hanako, he quietly made his way through the inn and towards the room belonging to the girl who had seen the deer. He didn't know her name. He had seen when that boy had carried her back to the inn, he had listened to the exorcists as they spoke, not bothering to notice a simple worker from the inn walking around. What he heard of the talk surprised him, but it also reassured him. He heard them talking about the young girl and the boy having encountered "something" in the woods just outside of town, right where Tadao rightly knew that demon was hiding.

By the time he stopped outside the girl's room, the inn had started to become quiet again. It seemed that the underdressed woman with the odd hair and a group of exorcists had been sent out to check on the place where the "deer" had been seen. Tadao was thankful that most of the inn was then empty of exorcists, though the _kids_ who couldn't rightly call themselves exorcists were still around somewhere. There was also that troublesome young man with glasses; Tadao knew he would possibly be able to get in the way.

That wasn't something that mattered at that moment, all that mattered was that he got a look at the girl who had seen the demon, possibly even talk to her and get as much information out of her as possible. He knew that there would be someone to watch over her soon enough, as he had heard she was unconscious, though that was something he could deal with easily. He was only a servant of the inn, after all, what would anyone care if he simply went to air out the futons?

As he once again stopped outside another shouji screen door, sliding it back to reveal the one girl he was looking for, he forgot all dangers at that moment and entered, sliding the door shut behind him as he stepped towards the girl. She seemed to be sleeping almost peacefully, though he could only guess what horrible things she would be dreaming about after seeing such a strange creature.

He stopped beside her and stared down at her, taking in the look of her. She had dark hair, and it seemed there was almost too much of it for someone her size; she was pale, and her face was calm, almost frighteningly so. As Tadao simply looked down at her, all thoughts of being caught gone from his mind, he wondered just what he should do with her now that he was there. Should he try and wake her and gather as much information as possible, forcing it out of her even? Probably not, but what was he to do?

It seemed that whatever it was he was meant to do was decided for him when a voice from behind him said, "what are you doin' here?"

Slowly, Tadao turned from the girl and looked at the boy standing in the doorway, one of his hands was still on the shouji door and the other laying by his side, curled into a fist. He was staring at Tadao as if he was something that was just found on the bottom of his shoe and continued to move. Though he should have been, Tadao wasn't scared of the boy or the look he was giving him; he knew he wouldn't do anything, it's not like he had seen Tadao do anything other than look at the girl.

"I heard something happened," Tadao said after a moment, bowing his head to the boy. As he looked up he could see the boy didn't trust him; a smile almost made its way onto his lips, though he held it back. He didn't want to be given away by something so trivial. "I came to check on the girl."

The boy in the doorway didn't speak, only stared at Tadao. Their eyes locked in silent battle for what felt like an eternity before one finally looked away. It was Tadao. He shifted his eyes away from the boy's and stepped forward, heading towards the door; the boy stepped to the side at the same time, clearing the way for him and glaring at him as he walked past. Tadao was almost ready to make a passing comment, though he only bowed his head again and walked off down the hallway, smiling to himself as he went.

As Tadao left, heading off down the hall, Bon stepped further into the room and slid the door closed behind him. He sighed heavily as he sat down beside Mon, one elbow resting on one of his knees and his chin resting on his curled up fist. He couldn't help but feel as though he was stuck on babysitting duty while the other Exwires got to head out into the village again and try to gather more information. Even so, he didn't feel comfortable being almost completely alone in the inn with Mon unconscious and that man, Tadao lurking around. He most certainly didn't trust him.

He looked at Mon as she lay there, breathing lightly. She looked calm enough to him, which was kind of surprising after what they had both seen. After all, how many people could stay calm after seeing that kind of animal with a third eye, black and shining stuck in its forehead? Not many, if any at all. Bon couldn't blame Mon for fainting at the sight of that thing; he had barely been able to make himself move at the time.

He sat there, his mind mulling over what he was meant to do; stay there and watch Mon, once Mon wakes up, make sure nothing happens and do his best to watch Tadao as well. He was indeed on babysitting duty, though he could have easily said no to Yukio. In the end he chalked the reason as to _why_ he agreed to be that he didn't want to be seen as not dependable, though in the back of his mind he felt it was because he didn't trust anyone else with watching over Mon.

With that thought lurking in the back of his mind, Bon cleared his throat and leant back against the wall, getting himself comfortable and closing his eyes.

X

Shura and her team had been combing those goddam woods for hours; the sun had even started to lower over the far horizon, painting the sky in a whole heap of shades of red, orange and purple. There were some clouds once again rolling in from the far south, and they looked like they would bring rain again, though nowhere near as much as the storm the night before.

Though the exorcists payed the sky and weather no mind as they continued to search long after the Exwires and other exorcists, whom had been gathering more information in the village had gone back to the inn. They covered every square inch of ground over and over again, checked for anything out of the ordinary, and the only thing they found giving any indication of what had happened was a patch of ground, damp and with clots of soil and grass strewn about as if kicked up by a set of hooves.

As Shura sat on a tree trunk which had probably fallen in one of the storms, she sat her elbows on her knees and cupped her chin in her hands, her eyes gazing frustrated at the group in front of her. "Where the hell is that goddam deer?" She muttered, looking from exorcist to exorcist. The sun had not long fallen below the horizon, covering the world in a cool, not yet complete darkness.

A young man, already going slightly grey at the temples and throughout his lightly coloured hair, gazed at Shura and the surrounding trees, a stone mask of seriousness falling over his face. "We found the tracks of what we think is the deer," He said, nodding behind Shura. "But they only go some distance before they disappear right in front of a fallen log. We haven't found them again anywhere."

Shura growled, taking her chin away from her hands and slamming her balled up fists down onto her knees. She glared at the people in front of her as if they were the cause of it all, her eyes sparking like the fires of hell. "You damn well better find those tracks again!" She yelled as she jumped to her feet, her cheeks flushing in anger. "That thing might well be the demon we're _after_!"

A few of the exorcists glanced to each other, slightly frightened of Shura's wrath being taken out on them; she was a formidable person after all, and she was one of the last people anyone would want after them in a bad mood, demon sword or no demon sword.

Shura's seemingly imminent rampage was interrupted when a middle aged exorcist stepped forward and pointed to the southern horizon. The sea of roiling clouds was a lot closer than it was before; the clouds seemed to almost be right on top of them all. The exorcist that stepped forward spoke after a moment, her voice shaking with concern. "There's going to be another storm, isn't there?"

Before anyone could reply, something that no one would have expected happened. There was no prior warning like a clap of thunder or even an uncomfortable, deafening silence, it simply happened in the blink of an eye.

There was a bright flash of lightning in the darkening sky, almost blindingly bright. Most of the exorcists covered their eyes or ducked reflexively as the air above their heads seemed to crackle, some even screamed and yelled, not really knowing what was going on. By the time they stood up straight and opened their eyes, there were gasps coming from everyone as they looked to the trees above them, their eyes wide and their faces drained of any colour.

Shura began shouting orders at them all as the horrible orange blaze lit up the tree tops, casting evil, wavering shadows on everything around and below it. The fire was growing in size rapidly as there was finally thunder rumbling high up in the sky. The heat coming from the blaze was intense as most of the exorcists could almost feel their skin starting to redden like a bad sunburn, and some did burn when the sparks which floated through the air happened to land on their arms and faces like charred snow. Some smoke was rising in a black column from the tree tops like a dark smudge against the dim sky, now lit up by the flames.

"You!" Shura shouted as she pushed her way through some exorcists; everyone seemed to be trying to do anything and everything, all at once, and there was shouting not too far away. Some of the residents of Kurogawa must have quickly seen the blaze and widening spread of smoke and were calling for someone to do something. Why didn't anyone _do something_ themselves? "Get your ass to the town and make sure someone's called the fire department!"

The young man Shura had yelled at –really no more than a boy- nodded and sprinted off towards Kurogawa, his arms and legs pumping like he was in the Olympics. Once again Shura growled and turned to look up at the rising smoke and spreading flames, hoping that the rolling thunder would bring rain with it, though she couldn't help but think that they would be having a hell of a dry storm that night. And by the look of the clouds in the distance, there was a hell of a wind blowing its way towards them too.

"Where's that bastard Tamer Nakagawa and his Crocell(1) when you really need them," Shura cursed, wiping her hand across her forehead as she watched the flames dance and sparks fly up into the sky like a million fireflies. "Let's hope the normal fire department'll be good enough to stop this fire."

Finis

**Footnotes:  
><strong>10 "Crocell" One of the demons listed in the _Ars Geotia_. He can warm water, make the illusion of running water, and find natural baths. He is meant to appear as an angel. I tweaked his ability in this to be simply control over water.

**A/N: Well, thank you for reading to the end of this...I really have cut down on the footnotes lately...anyway, please R E V I E W so I know how this chapter is! :D Oh, and tell me if you have any ideas for the story, I'm curious as to what some of you might think could happen. And because I said Merry Christmas in the first A/N:**

**HAPPY EASTER!**


	4. IV

**A/N: Well, here's chapter four! I said in the last chapter that I should be averaging one chapter every two weeks...this came out in about half that time! Be happy peeps! Anyway, there's not a lot to say here other than thank you SOOOOO much to the wonderful reviewers (you know who you are!), and that I would definitely like to hear people's opinions as to where they think this story is going. Also, I would like to say to the one anonymous reviewer, ind, that there is something in this chapter for you!**

**One last quick thing is that there will be a rant at the end of the page if anyone wants to read it...do not read if you are a fan of the anime. You have been warned. Oh, and one footnote in this chapter!**

**Summary: **Mon, a Chinese student recently transferred to True Cross Academy; Bon, a hot-headed genius of a student whose silently implied job is to stop Mon from getting too far lost in translation; Furfur, a demon with a score to settle with a certain remote village. Put them together, what do you get? This story.****

**Disclaimer: I do not own any _Blue Exorcist_ characters that may or may not appear. The only ones I own are the ones that don't belong to Kazue Kato. Got it? Good :D**

Dragon Tamer  
>Chapter Four<p>

Laid out all the way along the low table was god only knew how much food, everything was traditional Japanese, and there was a hell of a lot of it. All the Exwires and a few of the higher classed exorcists were seated on cushions on all sides of the table and were staring at the food wide eyed and slack jawed. Sitting at one end of the table, a smug grin plastered across his face and his arms folded across his chest was Rin, looking as if he thought he was a god.

The look everyone was giving the food and Rin would indicate that they were shocked that such a boy would be able to cook so much, and by the smell emitting from the food, they seemed shocked that he would be able to cook so well. Just as everyone began to eat, a few of the boys stuffing their faces like there was no tomorrow, Shima leant back and called to the girl a person down from him at the table.

"Beppin-san! What'd you think of the food?" He asked, a dopey grin spreading across his face, though an appearance of mock hurt crossed his features as he looked to Bon across the table, where he sat amiably ignoring everything Shima was saying. "But I think it's unfair that Bon was the one who got to stay behind and look after you."

"Give me a break," Bon said after a moment, looking up only for a moment to drill a glare straight into Shima's forehead. "It was nothin' but babysitting duty." His attention quickly returned to his food, though a scowl continued to rest on his lips. The truth was that he thought he had heard Tadao outside the door while Mon was still asleep a few times after he left the first time, though every time Bon went to see, no one was there. The fact that he was either paranoid or that Tadao wanted something with Mon had not left him in a good mood.

Eating was not a quiet affair; in fact, it was quite the opposite what with the Rin fighting across the table with Bon, some of the higher classed exorcists laughing at the Exwires, Yukio trying to get Rin to calm down and not fight, et cetera, et cetera. Amongst the name calling and the ones simply trying to eat their meal in peace, sat Mon. She was sitting between Takara and Izumo, quietly eating her food with a smile on her lips, though she didn't try and eat much. She didn't feel like she could stomach much food after what happened during the day.

It all seemed like it never even happened, it actually felt a hell of a lot like a dream to Mon, though she knew it wasn't. She could remember everything clearly, the look of the deer, the third eye, the steam rising from its flanks as it kicked up clots of dirt. She remembered it as clear as day. She sighed as she lifted a piece of fish to her mouth and took a small bite. Even if Rin's cooking was good, which it most definitely was, she didn't think she would be able to eat too much of it.

Earlier that evening when Mon woke up, the first thing she noticed was that she was alone in her room. To begin with she didn't really understand why she was in her room by herself and not out with the other Exwires in the village; for a minute or two she couldn't really remember what had happened to her to end up back at the inn, though when Bon slid the door back and walked in, startling Mon considerably, the memories of the past event began to come back, albeit slowly.

At first she was about ready to ask Bon what he was doing in hers and the other girls' room, though when she couldn't form the words in any language other than Chinese, she settled with sitting silently, hoping that the confused look on her face would be enough.

"Mornin'," Bon muttered sarcastically as he sat down beside Mon's futon. Not long after he had been charged with watching Mon he had gone back to his room and changed out of his dirt covered clothes, though he still had some dirt and whatnot in his hair and on his skin. He didn't think it would be safe to leave Mon alone long enough for him to get cleaned up, and so settled with only changing his clothes.

Mon pulled herself up into a sitting position and brushed some of her hair behind her ears and flicked a lock over her shoulder. _It'll need cutting soon..._ She thought distractedly, doing her best to comb through her memory and figure out what happened. She didn't even remember having a dream while she evidently slept, though when she woke up she had the feeling of having just woken up from a nightmare.

After a moment of sitting there in silence, neither her nor Bon saying anything, Mon gasped, her eyes widening as she suddenly remembered what has happened. _Seriously? _She thought as she brought her hands up to her eye level, staring at them as they shook. She remembered Rin and Shima going off together and her and Bon heading to the outskirts of the village; she remembered hearing something in the bushes while she was by herself and turning to see that _thing_ with the third eye. The last thing she remembered was fainting.

She shuddered lightly as she brought another piece of food to her mouth, doing her best to eat what she could. Once she had remembered what happened, she went and got cleaned up and just spent the rest of the time up until the exorcists got back in the room reading, though she never got very far. Having Bon sitting in the room with her just sitting there quietly made her nervous and distracted her from whatever she was trying to do.

Mon shook her head and tried to concentrate on the food in front of her, though any and all thoughts of food were gone from Mon's mind when an exorcist covered in soot and utterly out of breath slid the shouji door back with force and started to yell, though all the words he was trying to say were jumbled together; even Mon could tell. As he stood there, he looked wildly from one person in the room to the next, as if begging for them to understand, though after a moment he simply sank to the floor, his hands in front of him being the only things holding him up. The next time he spoke his voice was clear albeit slightly shaky, and everyone else easily understood what he was trying to say.

"There's a fire..." He muttered, shaking his now ashen hair. "Some villagers called the fire department, but it's spreading too quickly! The wind's feeding the flames too well!"

Around the table the silence that had been created by the young man's frantic entry was shattered by a set of sirens whooping in the distance. It was only an instant later that Yukio was up along with everyone else at the table, and heading for the door, though as he passed Mon he said something to her. She didn't understand what he had said, and by the time everyone left she had no idea what to do and simply stayed where she was.

As everyone filed out of the room, one after another, Mon was left standing by the shouji door, confused and feeling slightly sick. The exorcist that had disturbed them all looked like he had just been rolling around in what would remain of a forest after a particularly nasty fire, and from the sounds of the sirens on the air it didn't seem that judgement was far off the mark at all.

As Mon stood by the door, shifting uneasily from foot to foot and listening to the sounds outside, the scent of the abandoned food filling her nose, she could almost believe she heard the crackle of fire in the distance. She walked to the only window in the room and did her best to see beyond the glare on the glass, cupping her hands around the sides of her face to be able to see better.

She gasped when she managed to see the orange and red glow shifting amongst the tops of the trees in the distance, a dark pillar of smoke rising above it and into the evening sky. She watched as people walked around the streets, shouting to each other, trying to herd children in doors, or simply watching the blaze on top of the trees in fascinated horror. Mon almost believed she could feel the heat of the fire right near her, causing her skin to burn and itch in an extremely uncomfortable way.

"That's where everyone went." She muttered, her eyes fixed on what was going on in the outside world. She almost felt like a goldfish stuck in a bowl, able to see everything, but not to do anything. Trapped, if you will.

"You're still here."

Mon jumped as a voice she didn't recognise nor completely understand came from right by her ear. As she turned around with her heart beating a million miles an hour she saw someone who looked just as unfamiliar as the voice. He looked young, only in his mid-twenties; he had light coloured hair and dark blue eyes, though they unnerved Mon extremely. The way he was looking at her scared her, like she was just what he needed to get something done, something unpleasant. He was standing too close for comfort, too.

As she stood there silently, Tadao simply watched her like some carnivorous animal watching its new found prey, thoughts rushed through her mind as if they were lightning in a summer storm. She didn't know what she was going to do; she didn't even know whether this man was someone she could trust, though even if he was, she would not be going near him of her own accord. He had the kind of eyes you would never want to look into, and you would never want them to look into you.

After a moment, Tadao lifted one of his hands from his side and held it in front of him as if in invitation. "There are some things I need to know," he said, smiling almost sardonically. "And I have a feeling you may be able to help me with finding them out, seeing as you saw Furfur."

Looking at Tadao as if he was mad, Mon took a cautious step back from him, though when he noticed, he took a step forward to match her. Mon could feel her body beginning to shake, she knew her eyes were going from place to place, trying to avoid contact with Tadao's, and she knew that something wasn't right. She couldn't understand a word Tadao was saying to her, and when he took another step towards her, she brought her arms up in front of her defensively, unable to take another step back as she had her back to the window.

"What are you doing?" Mon stuttered, not even thinking to use Japanese as she lifted her arms higher, almost to the point of shielding her face from the man in front of her. Many, many possibilities were running through her mind as to what was going on, not one was the least bit pleasant, though there were a few that she just wouldn't think to ever land a thought on.

Even though Tadao hadn't understood what Mon said, he could at least see that she was scared, and that was good. If she was scared it would be less likely for her to be troublesome while he tried to get her to tell him about Furfur, which was indeed the demon the exorcists were there to find. It just so happened that the deer Mon and that boy had seen was Furfur as well, at least that's what Tadao believed.

Smiling in a way which seemed to be casual though with sinister undertones, Tadao made a reach for Mon's shoulders, perhaps even her throat if she decided to be difficult. His eyes seemed to shine in an unnatural way with small points of orange in each from the reflection of the fire in the window, a grin on his lips and a chuckle ready to move from his throat to the outside.

Mon cringed as Tadao made a reach for her, and her body simply reacted on its own. In an instant she did her best to duck under his arms, her eyes screwed shut tightly as she went, a gasp escaping her lips. She could have sworn later that she had heard a growl coming from the man in front of her, though she would only think of that later, for just as she opened her eyes thinking that she was clear of the man's hands, she felt a pain in the back of her head and resistance from her hair.

Her eyes widened and she almost screamed as she was pulled back, her scalp feeling like it was on fire just like the trees in the distance outside the window. As she tripped and fell backwards, being pulled down to the ground, she cried out almost silently as pain shot through her tailbone. She fought to hold back tears as Tadao's grip left her hair, and when he moved to stand in front of her, she clenched her teeth and tried to move away from him, terrified.

"Don't you try and get away." He muttered, crouching down in front of her, his hair falling over his shoulders slightly as his hair tie slid further down the pony tail. "You're going to need to talk to me." He smiled, almost as if he was talking to an old friend.

In Mon's confusion, she didn't even think as she spoke in Chinese, putting a hand to the back of her head while her face flushed and her eyes became reddened and tearful. "Leave me alone!"

Tadao sighed and straightened up, towering over Mon as he spoke, sounding as if he was almost _regretting_ what he was having to say. "Now now," he said, shaking his head at the unfamiliarity of the Chinese language. "Don't go getting carried away."

X

As Rin simply fell to the ground and lay on his back with his wooden sword beside him, obviously out of breath as he looked at the smoke filled sky above him, he called to the others, obviously happy that the fire was finally out. "It's out! I _knew_ we'd save 'em!"

As Rin laughed from where he was lying, covered in ash and dirt just like everyone else, Yukio moved to stand above him, his face hidden mostly in shadows though his glasses gleamed slightly in the moonlight. "_You_ didn't save anyone, Rin," he said, propping his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and folding his arms across his chest, leaving a smear of ash across one of his arms. "The _fire department_ got here just in time to save the huts over there," he nodded towards a number of small huts through the thinning trees.

Rin simply muttered a "yeah, yeah" and waved a hand to dismiss what Yukio had said as he sat up, looking around at the trees. By the time the fire department had arrived, quite a few of the trees had been lost to the flames. Even though no one had gotten hurt, there were a few people who might wake up the next morning with some red spots from the flying embers or just the heat, no one seemed to need any real medical help, even if Shiemi was using her little Green Man familiar to call out some aloe –or as she called it "Sancho"- to help the burns.

By the time the fire trucks pulled away and left to return to the town over, most of the villagers had gone back to their homes and the exorcists had started to return to the inn. None of the villagers nor exorcists seemed to be in an overly joyful mood after what had happened, after all, they did have to leave the still smouldering remains of the fire be until the next morning. They were all glad that the fire hadn't spread to any of the huts or houses of Kurogawa, at least. The wind had also died down, though it looked as if there would be yet another storm soon.

"What was that?" Izumo cocked her head to the side as she listened while everyone stopped just outside the entrance to the inn. There were sounds coming from inside the inn, though they managed to send chills up most of the exorcists' spines.

Quickly, Yukio looked behind him and stared at Bon. For a moment that was all he did, though when the sound of something shattering inside reached everyone out there, he didn't hesitate to run into the inn, not bothering to take off his shoes at the genkan(1) as he yelled over his shoulder. "We left Mon here by herself!"

As everyone followed after Yukio, most of the Exwires right on his heels, Bon near the back of them, all that was going through his mind were thoughts berating himself for his stupidity. He was charged with watching over Mon and he blew it to hell! What the hell were they going to do if something _happened_ to her? He could hear his heart beating in his ears as Yukio all but threw the shouji door open.

The scene that both Bon and the others were greeted with made anger bubble to the surface, not only in Bon, but also in the others like Rin and Shima. Inside the room was a mess; the thing that had shattered was a large, decorative, blue and white vase which was meant to be sitting in an alcove but was now laying in pieces on the tatami, the food which Rin had cooked so carefully was scattered everywhere, not just on the table, leaving smears and stains all over the place. In the middle of it all, near the wall was Tadao, leaning down over Mon and holding her hair in one of his hands, grinning.

Mon's face was tear streaked, and red, there was food in her hair and there were some cuts on her legs and feet from the broken vase; her own hands were in her hair and her teeth were clenched as she almost completely screamed in what could only be burning agony in her scalp and legs. She looked scared more than half to death.

Bon didn't hesitate as he pushed through the doorway and went straight for Tadao. His mind was clouded and the only thoughts that could make their way through his head were that he had to hurt that guy, badly. He managed to grab Tadao by his collar and pull him away from Mon, though Tadao's grip on her hair was firm, and that time she did scream as some of her hair was evidently pulled out as well.

While Mon fell back against the wall and Bon brought his curled fist back to sock Tadao one, he felt a weight on his elbow and turned to see the others. Yukio was the one with his hand on Bon's elbow, and he was looking seriously at Tadao where he stood firmly in Bon's grasp, still grinning. When Bon felt a laugh bubble up and out of the man in his grasp, he almost did punch him, though when Shura stepped forward and pulled the man out of his grasp, he stepped back reluctantly, shooting a worried glance at Mon.

"Suguro, take Mon back to her room," Yukio stepped forward, his glasses glinting in the almost dim light of the room, some of the vase crunching under his feet. He didn't look away as he spoke again, this time to Shura as she too moved towards Tadao, her demon sword already in hand. "Kirigakure, take Tadao away and question him. Try not to wake anyone, either in the inn or anywhere in the village."

Shura nodded and took Tadao away, growling slightly and holding the demon sword a lot closer to him than was "safe". Just as they were about to disappear around the door, Tadao muttered something that only just managed to reach Bon where he sat. "Damn," he muttered.

While the other exorcists left the room, the Exwires moved to stand and crouch near Bon as he sat next to Mon. They looked to the pair, concerned. Bon looked as if he was ready to kill someone, and by the look on Konekomaru's face, he really did think that Bon might do so; Mon looked completely and utterly distraught, not even crying as she stared down at her hands almost catatonically. She looked a complete mess, though no one could blame her for that.

No one said anything as Bon stood up, picking Mon up as he went. No one knew what to say or do in such a situation after all. As Bon carried her out of the room, his face a mask of silent rage almost to the point of becoming calm, the others simply stared after them, speechlessly. By the time they moved all the other exorcists were gone once again, none loitering around any corners or in any of the rooms talking, they were all probably in their own rooms, and any conversation would be minimal.

As everyone else did, the Exwires returned to their rooms, though Shiemi and Izumo were both hesitant to slide the door back and walk into theirs, as that was where Mon would be. Did they really want to see her like that? Either way, their decision was made up for them when the door slid back before either of them could touch it, causing them to jump slightly.

As Bon slid the door open, he stared at the two girls outside for a moment, almost as if he didn't quite recognise them, though that expression was quickly replaced by irritability and anger. "I'll go find a Doctor class to look at her," he said as he pushed past Shiemi and Izumo. "You guys make sure nothin' else happens."

Izumo and Shiemi watched Bon leave. Shiemi was clearly concerned, and she told Izumo so as she closed the door behind them and went to sit next to Mon where she once again lay on her futon, her hands covering her face. As Shiemi knelt down, her Green Man familiar sitting on the top of her head, she smiled at Mon and said, "It's okay now; you'll be okay with Yuki coming to look after you!" Again she smiled as she mentioned Yukio once again needing to tend to Mon.

Mon simply nodded, not taking her hands away from her face as she was obviously crying. Tadao had scared her more than anything in her life, and she was ashamed. She was meant to be an exorcist, and yet she was unable to protect herself against someone like him; she didn't even use her Shikigami. She knew she wasn't amazing at fighting, but she still thought she should have been able to at least defend herself with something, her Shikigami being her first option.

Either way, that didn't really matter, she just wanted to leave. She wanted to go back to her family, but not in Shibuya where they now lived, she wanted to go back to Xi'an, back to the home she had always lived in. Her whole body shook as she cried, trying her best to hold the sobs in.

Bon was frustrated, angry, _infuriated_ about it all. _He_ had been charged with looking after Mon! Who cares if he thought of it as babysitting! How the hell could he have left a girl alone in that inn with _Tadao_ when they KNEW he was going to be a problem? How could he have _let_ her get hurt like that? She looked like she was going to die! In fact, Bon was scared out of his mind when he saw that bastard holding her by her hair, that messed up grin on his face like he was getting off on her suffering.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway, his fists clenched by his sides and his teeth locked together. He growled as he lashed out and punched the wall, not caring who could be on the other side or if he so much as broke his hand. Satan may have been number one on his to kill list, but Tadao was getting pretty damn close to the number two spot. He even had a hunch that Tadao may have only gone after Mon because it was her or him, and Tadao probably didn't want to go after Bon and instead chose the timid, foreign girl.

Everything, the entire set of circumstances, Tadao, Mon, all of it made anger bubble and rise to the surface. All he wanted to do was punch the wall again, maybe even a couple more times, but he didn't. He knew all it would do was possibly break his hand; it wouldn't be able to release his anger or make him calm again, no matter how many times he hit it.

Taking his hand from the wall and shaking his head, running his other hand through his hair, he started off down the hallway again ready to find Yukio or any other damn Doctor, his feet sounding muffled against the tatami mats. He sure hoped whatever Shura was going to do to that bastard would be painful.

X

"Tell me, why did you do that to the Onishi girl?"

On the far outskirts of Kurogawa, there was an abandoned rice farmer's hut which was supposed to be haunted. If anyone cared to be nearby on that night, they would have heard noises which would indeed make them believe that it was haunted if they didn't think so already. Inside, Shura was alone with Tadao, her demon sword in hand as she stood over him, menacingly.

Growling as she crouched down beside the man, she said again, "What did you do?"

Tadao chuckled where he lay on the floor of the hut, bloody and bruised from the interrogation. He had told this whore of a woman exactly what he had done; he said that he had been trying to persuade that foreign girl to tell him about Furfur, but this _woman_ wouldn't believe him; he even told her that anyone would have done, though that girl was the best option. She continued to believe that he was possessed and that there was something more than a bit of information that he was after. Even by the time Tadao collapsed from the shock and pain of the interrogation, his hair now free from its band and lying around him like a pool of pale brown, Shura had her doubts about the man's story.

Either way, when she left him there and made her way back to the inn, making sure the door to the hut was locked and unable to be opened, she set her mind to focus on the problem of the demon itself. She had an inkling that Tadao may not be possessed, though she wasn't going to disregard that possibility. Best to leave him locked up where no one should find him and concentrate on something more important, though only slightly so.

By the time she was back at the inn and sliding the door shut behind her, she sighed. "I'm going be forced into a hell of a lot of work..." As she did her best to make her way to the room she shared with her female students she inwardly groaned and ranted at the duties she _knew_ would be pushed upon her.

X

A few days passed and they still found nothing to do with Furfur. Yukio had informed everyone of what they were after as soon Shura had reported to him on her interrogation, not leaving out any details as to what Tadao had said and what she had to do to get the information. It seemed that Shura wasn't the only one who believed that Tadao was possessed, though as Shura continued to tell everything, Yukio and many of the other exorcists began to think that that may not have been the case.

One of the exorcists present put his head in his hands, obviously exhausted and tired of it all. "If he was possessed," He said as he rubbed his temples. "Then that girl and Suguro shouldn't have seen the deer –Furfur, right?"

Shura nodded. "Yep," she leant back on one of her hands and held the other up in front of her, inspecting the nails. "If that bastard was possessed then Onishi and Suguro wouldn't have seen Furfur. But that's only if he wasn't possessed by Furfur; he could be by another of the freakin' things." She added the last bit in an almost feline growl.

Yukio sighed as he stood from his seat. He didn't say anything as he slid the door back and left, indicating that the meeting was over. He had been in a bad mood ever since the night Shura had taken Tadao away to be interrogated; it seemed that no matter how much they searched around Kurogawa and even one of the larger close by towns, they just couldn't get the information they needed. All any of the exorcists knew by then was that they were after a demon by the name of Furfur.

Furfur was a nasty demon, not the worst, but certainly not the best. According to many people, he has the ability to create storms, blasts, thunder and lightning, and so on, and manifests as anything from a deer to an angel, though like most demons not everything is completely known and set in stone. Either way, everything that was known about him to the exorcists fit, so at least they knew Tadao wasn't lying when he said it was Furfur.

Once again not much later than the meeting, some of the exorcists made their way out to the village to try and once again to find something, _anything_ that may have been of use to them.

Despite how tired most of them were, they continued to work; they continued to search for the demon they were after. Even when the head of the Japan branch who was also the principal of True Cross Academy, Mephisto Pheles rang and asked in that mockingly unworried voice of his how the investigation and exorcism was going, they kept going. There was one thing none of them talked about though.

All of them, there wasn't a single one that didn't have the feeling that something horrible was going to happen soon. They all were beginning to feel uneasy as each night the storms raged on, while during the day it was peaceful as if there was never a disturbance. The ones who seemed to be more open about that feeling were the Exwires.

Not long after the exorcists left, the Exwires and the others who stayed behind made themselves busy with doing work around the inn; anything to keep them occupied. Rin was in the kitchens, finishing cleaning after that morning's meal, Shiemi and Izumo were out checking on the people who had been injured in the fire the other night, Takara was god only knew where with his puppet, the Kansai trio had just gone out to find Yukio and inform him that the Okami had just woken up and was asking for the one in charge.

Mon had been helping Rin in the kitchens, though it didn't take long for them to finish. Rin laughed and said something about going to find something to do as he left leaving Mon to her own devices. After what had happened with Tadao she hadn't been into that room where it happened unless she had to, and she had been doing her best to be preoccupied with something. Her body was still sore and the cuts on her legs and feet were only just starting to heal properly –she would have to thank Shiemi and her Green Man for that- and she refused to wear her hair out anymore.

She slid the door shut behind her as she entered her room; she moved to sit by the far wall, picking up a magazine she had brought with her along the way. As she began to flick through the pages, her back firmly against the wall and her knees pulled up close to her chest, she sighed. It really didn't seem like what happened with Tadao was real, it felt a lot like what happened with the deer, though Mon knew both things actually happened.

As she sat there absentmindedly flicking through the magazine, all of it in Chinese, she wondered just what everyone was going to do about the demon. "They're meant to kill it, aren't they?" she muttered to herself, wondering just who would be the one to do it when they found the creature. Yukio, probably in Mon's opinion; the young teacher seemed to be the best for the job of exorcising the demon. At least either him or Shura, though Shura seemed reluctant to take on any responsibility _anytime_. Either way she didn't care who was meant to kill the thing, she just wanted someone to get rid of it, and if that meant killing it, then so be it.

Pausing half way through turning the page, Mon stared down at what was depicted there right across the two page spread. Across both pages in what looked like a cluttered collage –though was probably considered "artistic" by professionals- was a whole bunch of pictures of both Chinese and Western models who were so skinny as to be skeletal, each one sporting a different haircut. Diagonally across on of the top corners of the page was the name of a salon written in black and bright orange characters.

For a while Mon just stared at the pages in front of her curiously, though eventually she stood up and left the room, the magazine still in hand with her index finger marking the page for her. As she made her way throughout the inn, looking for anyone she knew, she wondered how she would be able to communicate what she wanted.

As Mon slid a door back revealing a long porch area leading around the building, the back garden area of the inn in front of her, she jumped as she heard some grumbling heading towards her. Even though it was in Japanese, she could easily tell that whoever it was wasn't happy by the way they were speaking, swearing from what Mon could tell. For no real reason her heart was beating a lot faster than it should have been and her mind kept telling her that she should run. It seemed that her body still wasn't over what had happened; it was still jumpy and telling her most things were dangerous.

As Shura continued to pace around the porch of the inn, her hands on her hips and her hair swinging behind her, she growled to herself, musing about what to do with Tadao; he was still in that rice farmer's hut, though each day he was given two small meals, while in between each Shura or another exorcist would try and get more information out of him. Mostly Shura.

"Um," Mon murmured, not being able to bring herself to speak loudly in case she made a stupid mistake whilst trying to say what she wanted in Japanese. "Miss...Kirigakure?"

"Hmm?" Shura looked up from the porch and stopped in her tracks, looking at the girl in front of her. Shura obviously recognised her as Onishi Mon, the Chinese girl who was basically attacked by that bastard Tadao the other night. Inwardly Shura sighed at the sight of the girl; her hair was up in a bun, her skin was pale and almost sickly, her eyes had dark rings under them as if from lack of sleep and her hands were shaking as she held the brightly coloured magazine in front of her like a shield.

"Yeah?" Shura asked, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms beneath her bust as she shifted, tapping her foot lightly. She couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for Mon as she stood there, obviously nervous, but she also couldn't help but think she should have been able to handle herself before. She was almost an exorcist after all.

For a moment Mon just stood there, though when her wide eyes registered the slightly annoyed yet amused look on Shura's face she put her head down, opening the magazine in front of her. "U-um," she stuttered, holding the magazine up, her eyes searching the double page spread for what she wanted.

Mon gasped slightly as the magazine fell out of her fumbling hands. As she bent down to pick it up, mumbling a 'sorry' under her breath, her cheeks reddened as she heard Shura try to smother a small laugh. _I'm not even speaking and I'm messing up!_ Was what Mon thought as she stood up, turning a page or two to find the one she was on just a moment ago.

After a moment Mon took a deep breath and held up the magazine showing the double page spread of models and their haircuts. She hesitated when she saw the odd look Shura was giving her and wondered whether it might have been a better idea to have waited for Shiemi and Izumo to get back, but she shook that thought away and pointed from a particular picture and then to herself.

_What the hell...?_ Shura simply stared at Mon for a moment or two, doing her best to comprehend what it was she was trying to tell her. After not long she eyes lit up in understanding and she unfolded her arms, a smirk playing across her lips as she took a step towards Mon. "So," she said as she grabbed the magazine out of Mon's hands, looking at the one picture the girl had been pointing to. "You sure about that?"

From the almost evil look the fearsome exorcist was giving her, Mon started to question whether her desire to rid herself of what had happened in that way was really all that important after all. She decided that if anything went wrong it was her fault for trusting someone like Shura with a pair of scissors.

X

As the Kansai trio, Yukio and Rin entered the inn, Yukio heading straight for the Okami's room while telling the others to occupy themselves somewhere other than with him –much to Rin's annoyance as he began to rant rudely at his brother's back. It was obvious that Yukio believed whatever the Okami wanted to talk to him about was important, as she was bedridden and so sick as to be almost dying, though that didn't seem to stop Rin from sulking.

Rin continued to mutter and grumble to himself as he slowly followed after Bon, Konekomaru and Shima, dragging his feet dramatically like a little child in the midst of a hissy fit. All three of the former teens stopped as they heard what sounded like their teacher, Kirigakure's voice heading towards them, though it was obvious from the looks on their faces that they were slightly suspicious of the sound of mischievous pride in her voice.

Rin was the only one who didn't hear Shura's voice, and nor did he stop as he caught up to the others, still dragging his feet. "Hey!" He grumbled as he ran into Shima's back, holding his nose like it was broken –obviously not at the speed he was shuffling at.

Rin's storm cloud thoughts were cut off when the shouji door leading to the outside porch was opened to reveal Shura and Mon. Shura looked smug, as if she had just managed to beat the crap out of someone she hated; she was carrying a broom and a plastic bag full of what looked like black hair. She didn't say anything as she passed the small group of boys, laughing to herself lightly, her hair continuing to swing against her back and shoulders.

It seemed that the others didn't exactly notice Shura at all when they saw Mon. It wasn't that she looked a lot better than before, but she didn't look bad, it was just a shock to their systems when they saw how short her hair had gotten.

Mon was standing on the threshold between the outside porch and the inside of the inn, though she looked reluctant to go in any further than she was already. She didn't exactly expect for anyone to be there right after Shura cut off most of her hair, let alone Rin, Konekomaru, Shima, and _Bon_.

As she stood there fidgeting with the magazine in her hands, her head feeling amazingly a hell of a lot lighter than it had been, she wondered just what she looked like to the boys standing in front of her with her new haircut. The picture she had shown Shura was of a Chinese model –skeletal, just like all the others- with a short bob-style cut, only brushing the middle of her neck. Mon's hair should have been the same, though instead of clean cut and straight ends, she had choppy, almost messy ends. Shura didn't think she would be good with clean cut ends.

_That ain't Mon,_ was the first thought that went through Bon's mind, though after a moment of staring at the girl there almost open-mouthed, he indeed recognised her as the uncomprehending Chinese girl he was set the task of babysitting. She looked as shy as ever, and she was still showing the effects of what had happened with Tadao, though she looked lighter, as if a weight had been lifted from her mind. Bon could tell she felt better with less hair; probably some weird psychological effects from when Tadao had grabbed her by her hair.

Rin broke the silence by laughing and saying, "You look...weird."

Bon almost choked and all but punched Rin in the stomach when he heard what he said. Of all the things that _idiot_ could have said, it had to be something like that. "You idiot!" Bon all but yelled, voicing his thoughts as Rin stopped looking sheepishly at Mon and glared at the taller boy.

"I ain't an idiot!" Rin growled back, balling his fists, ready for a fight.

Mon laughed lightly as she watched the two boys argue while Shima just watched, amused and Konekomaru did his best to calm the two without actually getting involved. _At least they're not paying my hair any attention..._ She thought, relieved as she simply watched and listened to the unintelligible argument.

Then, at least there were no worries or thoughts of Furfur.

Finis

**Footnotes:**

1 "Genkan" are the entryways in Japanese homes and such where shoes are taken off and left. There's a whole lot of history behind _genkan_, but basically let's just say that you _never_ keep your shoes on in a house. _NEVER_.

**A/N: Well, thank you as always for reading to the end of this! Nothing else really to say here other than as always, I would like to know what you think, where you think this story's headed, et cetera, et cetera, and so forth, so please leave a review! Oh, and here's the rant I mentioned at the top:**

**Rant: I will just say that EVERYTHING that is taken from the actual _Blue Exorcist_ is based off the MANGA, not the fuck-up of an anime ('scuse my French if you're a religious man). I will kill myself before I willingly watch the anime. 'Nuff said. They've done a hellofa lot worse than what happened to the 2003 anime of Full Metal Alchemist (which was O.K on its own, but I still prefer the manga and Brotherhood). I will never acknowledge the anime past episode fourteen and MAYBE half of fifteen. I think if I go any further I will deter you from reading, sorry folks.**

**End Rant.**

**I would just like to say, I'm really sorry if I offended any fans of the anime...I didn't mean to sound so rude! Please accept my apologies if I've offended anyone, I just get carried away with some opinions sometimes...**


	5. V

**A/N: Well...I'm alive, and this story has been revived as of three AM this morning. I can't apologise enough to the people that really enjoyed this story, but I really am sorry that it's been stopped for so long, and I promise that I will continue writing it and that I WILL finish it. Anyway, there's not much else I can say, but sorry, and please enjoy. This chapter's a bit shorter at about 5,000 words, but that's not too bad. Please enjoy, and I would LOVE you get some feedback from you guys once you've read it as to how it's going, where you think it might end up, and so on. Thank you so much in advance for reading!**

**Summary: ****Mon, a Chinese student recently transferred to True Cross Academy; Bon, a hot-headed genius of a student whose silently implied job is to stop Mon from getting too far lost in translation; Furfur, a demon with a score to settle with a certain remote village. Put them together, what do you get? This story.******

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any _Blue Exorcist_ characters that may or may not appear. The only ones I own are the ones that don't belong to Kazue Kato. Got it? Good :D****

Dragon Tamer  
>Chapter Five<p>

Furfur was confident, at least so much as a demon in the form of a deer could _be_ confident. He—or more 'it'—felt that the table was turned in his favour; even if that pathetic girl and angry looking boy had seen him, he didn't care. They could, and probably _would_ do whatever they wanted—those two as well as the other _exorcists_—to try and eradicate him, but it wouldn't matter as Furfur would have his way and destroy that stupid village, soon enough.

He even knew about that idiot man who worked at the inn, the inn that just so happened to be run by that _woman_ who was the cause of this stupid farce. Then again, Furfur wasn't going to complain; it meant he got to get out of Gehenna and have some fun, not that he hadn't been out of Gehenna before. He had actually not been back to Gehenna for quite some time, at least by human standards.

He had been in the world of Assiah for almost seventy years; almost a lifetime for a mortal, but simply the blinking of an eye for a demon. He had never left the first place he was invoked to, and that place was Kurogawa. Seventy years ago a young girl only eighteen years old and with a deep interest in western occultism had summoned him with a small group of friends, no more than four other teenagers. She hadn't really known what she was doing, and neither did her friends, they didn't _really_ believe what they were trying would work; they didn't really think that _anything_ would happen.

But something did happen.

That one girl and her friends had found a book in the library in the next town over, the one at which they went to school. The book was titled something strange, though the name was long lost in the memories of any of the teenagers who laid eyes upon it, and there were many pages missing. When they approached the librarian about it she said she had never seen that book before, and if they wanted to keep it they were free to; in the end and after some thought, they did.

After about a week of studying what was left of the pages that were left in the small, battered book, they decided that they would have some fun and try some of the stuff out.

On the first day of the summer break all of the friends got together at the youngest's home. This girl was the one whom was most interested in western occultism, though oddly enough she was the one who was against doing anything that was written in that book the most; _she_ understood that there were some things that you just should never do, no matter what.

Unfortunately her friends didn't know any better and simply thought of that book as a piece of fiction, something to be taken with a grain of salt, something that just _wasn't real_. By the time they actually believed in what they had done, it was, as usual, too late for them to do anything.

That night they had laid the book down in front of them on the tatami mats. All five of them were sitting around the book in an unused room; candles of every colour—blue, black, white, yellow, green, red—were sitting at the points the book had specified, a pattern of lines and circles had been drawn rather unwillingly onto the tatami floors in chalk which the book called a 'sigil'. All of the teens had what they needed to say written out on some paper in their hands—though they had memorised it all long ago—and they had decided on who was going to start.

All that was left was to do it.

"Okay," the eldest boy in the group, a tall boy with dark hair and dark eyes said. His hands were visibly shaking and his skin was pale; all of them were nervous, even if they didn't believe in what they were doing. Their bodies could tell that they were doing something that they shouldn't. "C'mon Hanako, you're starting."

Hanako was the youngest; she was the one who had the most interest in western occult, _she_ was the one who would outlive all the others and regret it for her every waking day. She would live to inherit the inn they had so long ago partially summoned Furfur to, she would live to have a husband but no child, her husband would die of illness and would leave her to run the inn by herself, she would hire a number of staff to help, one of whom would be Tadao, she would have a cousin of hers by the name of Yamada Seiji come to help her when she fell ill. So many things would happen to her and her friends, all because of what they did that night.

"It'll be okay, Hanako," the second youngest, a girl by the name of Momoko muttered, putting her arm around Hanako for a moment. "This isn't real, even you should know that! It's just for a bit of fun, okay?"

Slowly, Hanako nodded as she forced a small smile upon her pale lips. "Yeah," she muttered shakily. "I know."

And so they began. All five of them sat behind each candle, the book positioned in the centre of all the candles as well as the sigil; all sets of eyes in the room were on Hanako as she took a deep breath and opened her mouth, ready to begin.

As the words that were written on the piece of paper in front of her began to flow from between her lips, Hanako felt something changing in the air within the room. She felt as if something wasn't right, as if the old fashioned words that were spilling from her mouth were not her own. When the others joined in with their own 'chant', the atmosphere became even heavier, though most of them simply believed it to be their imaginations and indeed told themselves just that.

It didn't take long for each of the teens to start feeling sick; first they simply felt a little strange, then after what seemed like moments each one in turn became dizzy and nauseous. Three of the five became unable to complete their parts in the chant and simply sat there with their hands clutching the sides of their heads, shaking and disorientated, unable to voice another word.

"What's the matter?" Reiichi, the eldest asked when he noticed that most of the others had stopped what they were meant to be saying. He didn't notice the shadows in the room as they seemed to crawl in and invade every space available, he didn't notice that Hanako was watching one corner of the room intently, her eyes wide and large against the backdrop of her pale face. "What's wrong with you guys?"

_Here..._

From within the depths of the shadows which painted the room in inky blacks, whispering resounded in a cacophony of voices. At first it sounded like nothing more than the wind in the trees, rustling the leaves as if the soft skirts of a dancer as she twirls across the polished floor. Eventually it began to get louder, loud enough for Hanako to make out the words, though she tried not be believe what she was hearing.

_Welcome us..._

She heard words that she recognised, but she also heard words that sounded completely alien to her. She heard names whispered in a susurrus of velvety voices, she heard horrible threats and phrases that she wished she would never hear, she heard everything, though she didn't want to hear any of it.

_Legion...MANY...__none__...__SatanGOD__...home...SACRI...__FICE__...takethemtakethemtakethemtake themtakeTakeThemTakeThemTake ThemTAKEthemTAKEthemTAKEthem TAKETHEMTAKETHEMTAKETHEMTAKE THEMTAKETHEM_

All of them were listening then, Reiichi, Hanako, Momoko and the others, they were all sitting there rolling their eyes from place to place as if they were trying to see everything and anything all at the same time. They were all shaking and they were all pale, all of them were sitting there as if they couldn't move no matter how much they wanted to.

Thoughts were flying through Hanako's mind as the darkness and whispering enveloped them all, surrounding them and filling every crevice as if a black smoke, reaching with hungry fingers and tendrils like wisps, ready to grasp them and squeeze the breath of out them at any moment. She thought she saw something moving in the corner of the room, right by the roof.

In an instant the discord of voices ceased, leaving nothing but the pitch dark and a foreboding silence in its wake. All eyes turned to the sigil in the middle of the room as it seemed to glow with an almost ghost like quality; the chalk lines were almost sinister where they lay, unmarred and pure white in the dimness, seemingly to be _burnt_ into the tatami.

After a moment one of the teenagers recovered his voice. "What was that?" Hideyoshi asked, running a shaking hand through his hair as he turned his head to look at all the others, all of them doing the same. "Did you guys hear that?"

No one answered, they simply stared all about the room, gazing into the shadows in the corners and where the walls met the floor, everywhere where the demon like shadows may have been able to hide.

Eventually when nothing else happened, when nothing crawled out of the shadows to get them, when the whispering didn't resound again, they all went home. Hanako went back to her room in the inn, Momoko left, shaken but trying to laugh at how "gullible" they were, and Reiichi walked her home. The other two—Hideyoshi and Kou—did the same and left as quickly as they could, obviously afraid to walk back to their homes in the dark of the evening, though they didn't voice those fears.

There was nothing else that they could do.

Day after day, all five of the teenagers did their best to ignore what had happened, or what they believed _hadn't_ happened. It was all in their heads, none if it actually happened, it was all just their imaginations being bastards and trying to scare them into believing that what was written in the book was _real_. They didn't talk about it when they were at school, they didn't talk about it when they were at each other's houses studying. They just _didn't talk about it_.

No one went to Hanako's house, the inn ever again, and from the way they acted when they passed it on the street, wild horses couldn't have taken them back there.

When Hanako would look back on what happened both that night and many more times in the future, she would wish that she had said something, anything to have made her friends forget about that little book before it was too late.

It _was_ too late.

Well, when _Furfur_ would look back on that night and all the nights that followed, he would all but smile at the memories of each of their screams. He had gotten all but one of those damned kids, and it had taken him a good sixty-five years to get down to the last one, and he was lucky that she wasn't dead yet. That old woman had probably spent the majority of her life doing her best to hide from the demon in that small village.

The wait was finally over.

X

"And all of this is true?"

Yukio, Shura and another exorcist were sitting complacently beside the elderly Okami; they had listened to her story, the story in which she played a major role, the story in which most of the cast ended up dead and defeated by the ghastly demon in the end. Though it wasn't the end, was it? No, Hanako was still there, like some decrepit reminder of a better forgotten sin. The story wouldn't end until she was gone.

She was sitting up from where she normally lay on her futon, her hair looked bleached white in what little light there was in the room, her face was pale and gaunt—more like the face of a corpse than an elderly woman—and she _already_ looked as if she had been dead for god only knew how many days. When she spoke her voice was not above a whisper and it was shaky, trembling like a dry autumn leaf in the wind.

"That is indeed what happened."

Yukio ran a hand over his face, sighing deeply as he contemplated the situation. Okay, so they were after a demon that was in turn after a _person_, Tadao had nothing to do with it besides what he wanted to do—which no one had any idea of—the Okami was the only one of the ones who were there the night that Furfur was partially invoked, and they seemed to be dreadfully understaffed for such a mission where they needed to take on a demon with an attachment.

That seemed about right.

"So you're telling me," Yukio muttered as he folded his arms and looked squarely at the Okami, seeming almost annoyed at everything that had been going on. "That the demon we are meant to take care of is after _you_?"

The elderly woman nodded her head, her hair which was pulled up into a loose bun bobbing slightly with the movement. She took a breath and opened her mouth to speak, though the only thing that came out was a rib-shattering cough; each of the three exorcists went to move to the woman's side, though she held one frail, shaking, blue-veined hand up as the coughing tapered off.

"Yes," she said, swallowing and clearing her throat loudly as she gave an almost cynical half-smile. "That is true."

Shura glanced at Yukio out of the corner of her eye as he sighed, and then at the other exorcist who was obviously doing the same. Everything was just one thing after another, another strike on the tally, another star in the sky; it seemed to be getting to the point where there was almost too much for them to handle by themselves.

Even if that was so, Yukio would _not_ call on Mephisto, in his mind they could still handle the job of eliminating Furfur. He told himself that at the moment things started to become too much he would make the appropriate calls, though until then he would be able to do whatever needed to be done _himself_. No matter what, the safety of everyone else was the major priority.

There was only silence for a few minutes, no one really wanting to speak. Eventually Hanako spoke again, her voice still the feeble sounding voice of an old woman on the brink of death, but there was a hint of defiance there, a sound that made the exorcists present obtain a glimpse of the young, headstrong, but still scared girl she must have been all those years ago. "If you can't do what was asked of you, then I am sorry to have called so many out here only to get hurt."

Yukio smiled slightly. What he said next made Shura and the other exorcist look at him as if he was mad, though behind his glasses his eyes held a look of authority, a look which said not to be argued with.

"This is what we'll do."

Shura decided that Yukio probably _was_ mad after all. _Fucking nuts, really, _was Shura's thought.

X

The light that was able to make its way through the grime cacked windows of the tiny thatched-roofed hut was minimal, though it was enough.

Tadao was sitting slumped against the wall farthest from the door, his hands lying limply by his sides, his chin resting on his chest and his hair creating a veil in front of his face, shadowing and hiding his eyes. He had been sitting there like that for a number of days, only being sustained by the simply cup of rice and fish soup given to him twice a day; he was not allowed to wash, and he could smell his own body odour strongly. He had also paced that tiny, godforsaken room so many times it seemed he would be able to recreate it life-sized and out of a bunch of bloody matchsticks.

There was one good thing that came out of being stuck in that hut, and that one thing was that he was able to commune with Furfur without being interrupted or found out. Yes, during the night he was first locked in there, what seemed to be a thin thread of black smoke made its way under the door and toward Tadao. At first he simply believed it to be shadows, though as it began to solidify and move together in the middle of the little room, he couldn't hold that theory together.

He had watched as whatever creature it was appeared in front of him as he sat with his back against the far wall. From what Tadao could see of it in the dark, it looked like a normal deer, though there was something strange about its outline against the door, something that made his heart and stomach drop to the very bottoms of his feet. When he realised what it was that made him uneasy, he almost screamed, though he managed to clamp his hands down over his mouth before anything came out.

Standing in front of him in the shadows of the hut, taking up most of the room in that tiny space, was indeed a deer, though it was not naturally so. Tadao could make out wispy tendrils of black rising from the creatures neck, back and flanks; he could easily see that instead of four legs, it had an extra pair protruding from in between both "normal" sets—a number of the hooves, even from the extra set were champing against the hard dirt floor of the hut—and finally, he was able to see something shining with an almost _liquid_ texture in the centre of the thing's forehead.

That night, when he met Furfur, he knew the tables would turn, and when Furfur began to communicate with him, the words not being spoken but simply seeming to appear inside Tadao's mind, he believed that he would win.

Tadao was shifted out of his thoughts as the door to the hut creaked open slightly, letting a shaft of light pour into the room, lighting up the dust motes and god only knew what else that was hanging around in the air. A different exorcist from the one he normally saw—that stupid woman, dressed as if she had a _customer_—entered the room, though the woman wasn't carrying the tray he would normally receive at such a time, he eyed her carefully, calculatingly.

The woman stared back at Tadao, her dark eyes openly showing hostility. For a moment all she did was stand there, staring at the pathetic looking man in front of her, thinking to herself why it had to be _her_. Why did _she_ have to come out to the edge of the rice fields and look after this bastard? She didn't care that she had her gun holstered at her side, obviously showing that she was a Dragoon; all she wanted was to go with the other exorcists and actually _do something_.

Growling vehemently, the woman stepped further into the hut, blocking the light from the still slightly open door, though there were still a few shifting shafts of light breaking up and flowing across the room, dappling on the wall in pools of golden light. No matter what, there was no way in high hell she would be able to comply with watching this _stinking_ asshole without decent incentive. Then again, she wasn't going to be just standing there and watching him; it was her job to take him to the Vatican.

"Up." The woman tapped a neatly manicured nail against the holster of her gun, not moving her eyes from the dirty man in front of her. He looked just as horrible as she had imagined; greasy hair, dirty face, hands and feet, torn and dirty robes, sullen eyes and bruised sockets, an almost haunting expression of empty emotionlessness that made the woman's heart drop. Either way, she continued to glare and lightly tap the holster.

Slowly, Tadao rose to his feet, using the wall behind him as a support. Behind his veil of greasy hair, he knew his eyes were beginning to become alive again, and he did his best to not let the woman in front of him notice. That would not do at all. He did however, let a small smile—horrible and disturbing in its sincerity—grace his lips as he straightened up, the muscles in his back stretching and his bones cracking with each movement he made.

He had a job to do, that he knew for sure.

X

"_Hey, Michiru, doesn't that man look familiar?"_

"_What are you talking about? I've never seen him before!"_

"_I know who he is! That's Takeda Tadao! Remember him? He lived in the village for a while, _years_ ago."_

"_Oh yeah! I remember him! The weird boy that was always saying strange things about monsters..."_

_A large man, sloppily dressed and with tattooed arms stomped his way out of his small store, folding his arms as he raised an eyebrow at the women huddled by the magazine stand currently positioned in front of the window. "What're you girls gossiping about out the front of my store?" he asked._

_One of the women, a short and dumpy lady by all accounts, turned to face the man, a look of fake scorn on her face, completely not in conjunction with her reddened cheeks. "Oh come _on_ Ichijou, everyone knows that you like gossip more than anyone else in this village!" The women began to laugh._

_Ichijou shook his head at the women. "Tell me what you're squawkin' on about, or take your social rot somewhere else," he said._

"_We're talking about Takeda Tadao!" one of the other women, the tallest of them spoke up. "You remember him, don't you? He was that strange boy that just wouldn't stop talking about monsters, and _ghosts_!" she paused, shuddering at the mention of things so horrifying. "We just saw him for the first time in _years_, heading towards the inn. I never thought he'd come back to this place after what happened to him..."_

_Sighing, Ichijou began to shoo the women away from his shop. "Go on," he said, waving his big hands at them. "Go somewhere else, and try to leave the man in peace. If he's come back after all these years, I don't think he's goin' to want _you_ harpies bothering him about the past, or anything else for that matter."_

_The women moaned and complained, but they did as Ichijou the store owner wished and headed away from his shop, the heels of their shoes clicking and clunking across the pavement. They continued to chatter about nothing in particular until one of them, the one towards the back of the group called to the others._

"_What happened to this Tadao guy?" she asked, rubbing one hand up and down her arm nervously. "Michiru, you said something happened to him...?"_

_Michiru stopped walking and turned to look at the other woman. "That's right, you wouldn't have been here all those years ago. Well, let's just say some young men did something that wasn't particularly nice to him...humiliated him, caused him to move away actually." She shook her head, smiling slightly. "But that's all in the past!"_

"_Right," the other woman mumbled. "The past."_

X

All the exorcists were, once again, gathered within the one room, seated around the low table and listening to Yukio explain what they were to do. There was a low mumbling, though not much more than that; the Exwires glanced at each other and down the room to Yukio, sending silent messages to one another. Everyone knew that something important was to be explained. Both Mon and Shiemi looked worried, while the others seemed to either handle it better, or were simply better at hiding it.

"This table's feeling a lot like home..." Rin muttered under his breath, an elbow resting on the table and his chin held in his hand as he stared at his brother. "Can't we just go and _do_ something? This sitting around ain't going to help anybody!"

"Rin!" Yukio snapped, glaring down the table at his twin. "Pay attention, this is extremely important information I'm giving you all, and you're going to need to remember what I tell you to do down to the letter!"

"Yes, yes!"

At Rin's response, a number of exorcists sighed and shook their heads, few smiled tightly at the boy, though the other Exwires, Yukio and Shura simply ignored him, and turned their attention back to the matter at hand.

"As I was saying," Yukio continued, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "We know now for sure that this demon we are going up against is indeed Furfur, and we know for a _fact_ that he is here because he was partially summoned in this very inn roughly seventy years ago, by none other than the Okami, Hanako." He paused here, waiting for any responses. When he got no more than a couple of grunts and clearing of throats, he marched on with his verbal assault of the facts. "Also, we know that within this time he has attached himself to each of the people involved in the summoning, and has...killed them. The only one left now is the Okami."

"Wait a second!" Rin called over the slowly rising chatter, him now sitting up and no longer supporting his chin in his hand. "How many people were there?"

"Besides the Okami, there were four others."

Rin's face slackened and his eyes widened, shocked at the realisation. "Wow!"

Opposite from Rin, Bon scowled. "Demons have killed plenty more than that, Okumura," he said, glancing up from the table to see the other boy glaring back at him, his jaw taught with clenched teeth, his eyes steely and his gaze steady. He had one hand resting on the hilt of the wooden sword sitting across his lap.

"Then we're not gonna let this one get any more than it already has."

_He's too confident for his own good...and ours_, Bon thought, shifting his gaze away from Rin and to the girl sitting only two people down from him. He kept his eyes on Mon for a moment, watching her eyes move about the room swiftly and over the faces of the exorcists and Exwires. He saw that her hands were shaking, and her skin was pale; she was also biting softly on the edge of her bottom lip, her minimal chest rising and falling rather rapidly with the speed of her breathing.

He shook his head slightly, frowning as he looked away from her.

An exorcist further down the table, closer to Yukio clenched his fists on the table in front of him, shaking his head. "But what are we going to do about Furfur then?" he asked, staring at Yukio, wide-eyed.

A small smirk pulled at the edges of the young bespectacled man's mouth, though he didn't answer the other exorcist's question. Instead, he looked to Shura who had an air of begrudging compliance about her. All the exorcists had their eyes on her, waiting to hear what it was that they were going to do about the demon that was causing so much trouble for so many people, them included. She sighed.

"We're going to invoke the bastard to the inn." She rolled her eyes and lent back on her hands as a number of voices rose up, shock evident in the air. Some of the exorcists had pushed themselves away from the table and were now on their feet, others had put their hands on the table and lent forward, their mouths hanging open.

"What? That's crazy!"

"But that'll make him stronger!"

"You're _insane_!"

At the back of the room, Izumo shook her head. "Mister Okumura's lost it," she said, her burgundy coloured eyes moving around the room, watching the commotion unfold. "And so have the others."

Rin shook his head. "No," he said, watching as his brother got to his feet and said something to another exorcist, who simply nodded. He then left the room, obviously ignoring the outcries from his colleagues and the questions barraging him as he closed the shouji door. "He's smart, he knows what he's on about."

"That's right!" Shiemi smiled, picking her Green Man up from the top of her head. "Yuki knows what to do, right, Nii?"

Bon scoffed and folded his arms across his chest, though before he could say anything the exorcist Yukio had spoken to began to speak over the other voices. One after another the others calmed and quieted down, listening to what the man had to say, though some scowled while others sighed, not happy with the situation. After all, he did just tell them that they were going to bring the demon fully into the world of Assiah.

"Listen, yes, we're going to invoke Furfur," he held up a hand, halting any more arguments. He continued, "But, there's a perfectly good reason behind this, and all of you more senior exorcists should realise exactly what that reason is." At this point he looked imploringly at the people in front of him. From beside him Shura yawned, mumbling to herself and once again rolling her eyes.

"Oh!" a woman halfway up the room exclaimed, her face lighting up in understanding. "We need to invoke him before we can get rid of him," she said, smiling lightly, revealing a set of slightly crooked teeth. "He was only partially summoned that first time, wasn't he? We'd be unable to send him back to Gehenna unless he was properly invoked!"

"That's right!" another muttered.

"We're _screwed_..." Someone else sighed, resting his head in his hands and threading his fingers through his pale hair.

Shura laughed—a sound more like a bark than anything else—and sat forward, watching the others in the room as if they would jump up and run away at any moment, and if they did, she would catch them. "No, we're not if we do this right. And me'n Yukio have it all figured out, all we need is the rest of you guys to do your jobs properly!"

Shima shuddered. "Miss Kirigakure's real scary sometimes, hey?"

"Shima, pay attention," Konekomaru said, sighing.

"So," Shura said, a grin spreading across her face, her eyes sparking wickedly. "We're going to have you lot worked to the _bone_."

Finis

**A/N: Once again, I am so sorry that this has been dead for so long, and I would appreciate feedback very much. I hoped you enjoyed reading it, and I'll do my best to continue this story. Thank you for reading.**


	6. VI

**A/N: Well...it's certainly been a while. I have been pottering away at _Dragon Tamer_ though, I just haven't really been getting very far until about yesterday. Anyway, if anyone still reads this, I hope you enjoy, and sorry for the delay. I now only have one exam to do, and then I'm done with compulsory schooling, so I will have ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE as to not getting this written.**

**As always, please leave a review so I know what you think and all that. Feedback lets me know whether you actually want to read more. And I appreciate the follows and favourites as well :3**

**There is also ONE footnote in this chapter, though you don't have to read it, it's just there for a bit of extra information IF you would like to know it.**

**Summary: ****Mon, a Chinese student recently transferred to True Cross Academy; Bon, a hot-headed genius of a student whose silently implied job is to stop Mon from getting too far lost in translation; Furfur, a demon with a score to settle with a certain remote village. Put them together, what do you get? This story.******

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any _Blue Exorcist_ characters that may or may not appear. The only ones I own are the ones that don't belong to Kazue Kato. Got it? Good :D****

Dragon Tamer  
>Chapter Six<p>

Once again the sun had set on Kurogawa village, casting shadows along the ground, elongating shapes and illuminating the world at its edges in fiery golds and oranges. It also seemed that on this night there may not be a storm, as the sky was clear of clouds and the horizon was perfectly visible, shifting from a pale blue swirling with peachy orange to a dark, velvety sea of navy, sparsely covered in tiny pin-pricks of silver.

All three of the female Exwires were in their room. Izumo had her nose buried deep within a book—probably of some educational persuasion—while Mon was laying on her stomach, her feet kicking back and forth in the air above her as she scribbled things down on a piece of note paper on the floor in front of her, seemingly copying things from and writing notes in the book which also lay in front of her. Shiemi was standing on her toes, her hands on the windowsill keeping her steady as she stared intently out into the growing murk.

The darkening sky framed the view of the last few rows of houses to perfection, before leading off into the distance, plagued by rows and rows of rice fields. The green of the rice fields was only just visible in the gloom, tinted in a strange, miscoloured hue as the light was sucked back below the horizon, leaving everything as nothing more than dark shapes against an even darker background, like some sort of two-dimensional painting.

The girls' room had caught the last of the light from the setting sun, though that too was bleeding away, voiding the room of the rose gold glow it had possessed not too long ago. As the outside world darkened, the room was then illuminated by the wonderful invention of man, the light-bulb, though Shiemi was still standing by the window, her hands cupped loosely to the sides of her face and pressed up against the glass as she stared out. She muttered something to her little familiar as she stepped back and turned away, seating herself down beneath the window.

As she plucked the little Green Man from its perch on the top of her head—much to the creatures annoyance—and placed him on her lap, she looked to Izumo, distracting her from her reading as she said, "Hey, Izumo, do you think this is going to work?"

The burgundy eyed girl glanced up from her book. "I don't know," she said, shrugging as she turned her gaze back to the pages in front of her.

Shiemi sighed. In truth, she was quite worried about what it was they were going to do, though the Exwires didn't appear to have too much to do compared with the higher classed exorcists. Yukio had been very specific about what they needed to do—he was always so precise—and just how soon it needed to be done, too.

Tadao was being escorted to the Vatican at that very moment, and Furfur was still loose somewhere in or near Kurogawa, the Okami's condition was still deteriorating, and who _knew_ when another storm would hit and how bad it could be. Just because the sky was clear didn't mean that the demon couldn't call one up in an instant.

And so, the plan had been formulated. The exorcists were to clear out a room in the inn, and with the help of the book the Okami and her friends had used so many years ago—it had been 'okay'ed by the Okami herself, were they to actually find the book—they would draw the sigils needed to invoke Furfur as well as bind him once he had been completely summoned into Assiah, and then they would complete the task by sending the demon back to Gehenna. It all seemed so reasonable in theory.

But that was only in _theory_, there were so many things that could go wrong...and if they did, well, the outcome would not be a pretty one. What if they didn't manage to dig up that book the Okami had originally used to summon Furfur? She had told Yukio where it should have been hidden away, but what if it was no longer there? There was always the chance that Tadao had already found it; he had been working there for at least a year already.

And that was only the start. What about all the things that could go wrong in the invocation? If one of the Arias so much as missed a word, the whole thing could begin to unravel, and that would be bad enough even if Furfur hadn't been completely summoned, but if he was completely in the world of Assiah, then they really would have a problem on their hands.

Shiemi sighed, reasoning with herself. _Yuki knows what he's doing, so we should trust him!_

Dropping her pen, Mon rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling, watching the thickening shadows as they swirled and moved about in the corners of the room, every small dip and slight ridge in the roof exposed in extreme clarity. She bit her lip and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, her thoughts distracted by her writing, and the situation everyone was in.

_Bing and Jun are restless(1),_ she thought as she absent-mindedly rubbed her hand up and down her left arm, tracing the messy, scribbled characters that were printed there. Mon could feel a faint pressure at the base of her skull, and she could hear a low ringing deep within her ears. Her mind itched, and the characters on each of her arms felt tight on her skin, as if waiting for any amount of blood to be soaked up and to release the tension that was Bing and Jun, her pair of Shikigami.

She knew perfectly well why her creatures were so tense, so ready to be released and put to work. It had been a while since she had last summoned them in her mock battle with Izumo, and even then they had not been unleashed for very long before Mon had collapsed, tired and stressed. They were also aware of the situation their master and the others were in, being forced to bring a demon into the mortal 'real' world just so that they would be able to send it straight back. They knew the danger, and they were anticipating it, feeling the tension flowing through the inn as if it was oozing from the very walls. They were like any animal, craving a fight, a _kill_.

Shuddering, Mon tried to think of something else; she thought about her family living happily in Shibuya. She realised that they would just about be eating dinner, chatting about their day, how Anbo had done at school and how Father had gone at work. It felt strange, Mon recalled, being the only exorcist in her family, simply because her brother wasn't yet old enough to attend the cram school.

She wondered when she would hear from them. She didn't own a mobile phone, not since the last one she had broken by losing it out the car window during a fight with her brother; she expected that they would have called the school, which made her wonder what sort of message they would have received. 'Sorry, your daughter is away on a mission involving demons, fires and crazy men that have a thing for pulling hair.' She hoped that was not the case.

Mon rolled back onto her front and pulled the book closer to her, flicking through a number of pages until she found the one she wanted. Another thing she had been doing to try and keep her mind off things for the time being was studying Japanese—something she hadn't been doing enough of. She had been looking up words and phrases that she thought would be useful, she was unravelling the mystery of the meaning of character after character that had alluded her. She should have been practising her ability to hear and understand what another person says, though she was just too afraid to approach anyone for that sort of activity. She didn't want to make a fool of herself, any more than she may have already done.

She knew how to say simple things such as 'hello' and 'goodbye', and 'thank you' and 'you're welcome', and she knew how to ask for the meaning of something, but that was about the extent of her vocabulary, at least of things she could remember quickly enough to be practical. She could remember reading somewhere that it takes about three months to become basically proficient at a foreign language when living in the country. She had a long way to go.

In the room of the male Exwires there was a feeling of anticipation in the air, seemingly mostly caused by Rin. Said young man was pacing back and forth across the room, his training sword in one hand while he waved the other about in the air, gesturing as he spoke.

"Why're we only going to start going after this thing _tomorrow_?" he complained, gesturing wildly. "We need to hurry up and do something, dammit!"

From nearer the door, Bon scoffed. "We _are_ hurrying, idiot. We ain't going to be able to send Furfur back in an instant, it's gonna take time."

"Now Bon," Shima said from his spot by the window. "Don't be so harsh, eh?"

"I'll stop being harsh when he stops being an idiot," he replied, scowling and nodding his head in Rin's direction.

Rin growled, but didn't make any more comments as he continued to pace the room. Bon closed his eyes and lent his head back against the wall, beginning to go over a number of Bible scriptures in his head. His brow creased as he concentrated and his mouth turned down at the corners in a frown. He knew each of them perfectly, right down to the punctuation, but still he practised, playing them over and over in his head, hearing each and every syllable in his mind, knowing exactly how they would feel coming up from his chest, to the back of his throat before rolling off his tongue, gathering strength and power as they went.

Words had power, much more power than most people believed they could hold. They had the power to destroy demons when they happened to be the _right_ words, and even normally, the words in a novel could make a person cry or laugh, and flush with lust or embarrassment. Words were _strong_, much stronger than they were given credit for, and it was an Aria's job to use the words of sacred texts to their fullest ability. It was for this reason that the Arias were given what was probably the most dangerous task.

Furfur was going to be invoked to the inn, likely to the Okami's room, and the Arias were the ones who were going to do the summoning. All of them would have to get everything word-perfect; they would have to be in the right places, say the right words, and not stop or mess anything up no matter what the circumstances. Yukio's plan was mad and more than a little bit dangerous, putting the entire village and every exorcist and civilian there at risk, were something to go wrong—heaven forbid.

It was all such a stupid, crazy plan.

Startled slightly, Bon sat forward from the wall, looking to the door as it was slid open. In the hallway stood Yukio; he looked annoyed, stressed, and slightly bedraggled, however he was getting the job done, and really that was the most important thing at the moment.

Rin looked at his brother for a moment. "What's up?"

Yukio sighed. "Almost everyone else is busy, and I need a couple of people to go and dig up that book the Okami said she used. We need it to invoke Furfur." He paused and nodded at the boys. "I'd like you three to go and find it; it shouldn't take you too long. It's supposed to be in the room next to the Okami's."

Without really waiting for a response, Yukio turned and left, leaving the door pushed open behind him.

There was a short silence before Rin headed for the open door. "Well," he said, grabbing his wooden sword from where it was leaning against the wall. "Better get it done. It's better than sitting around here!" As he stood in the hallway, one hand on the shouji door, he looked back at the others, a somewhat serious look on his face. "Well, aren't any of you coming too?"

Shima and Konekomaru stood up from where they were sitting. Shima stretched his arms above his head and yawned. "May as well, eh, Koneko?"

"Sure," the smaller boy agreed, shrugging. As they followed Rin out of the room, Konekomaru paused and asked Bon: "aren't you going to come, Bon?"

Bon grunted a reply and pushed himself to his feet, grudgingly following the others as he slid the door shut behind him. The four of them strode down the hallway towards the room they were meant to check. The hall was lit dimply with old incandescent light bulbs spaced evenly along the ceiling, giving their surroundings a sort of narrowed, claustrophobic atmosphere.

"That's the Okami's room," Konekomaru murmured as they passed a sliding door, and stopped outside the next one. "So this is it."

"Yep." Rin reached out and slid the door back. He stepped forward to stand in the door frame and groped around on the wall, feeling for a light switch. He made a quiet "ah-ha!" as his fingers ran over it, flicking the switch on and causing the room to fill up with light.

The small look of triumph on the boy's face quickly fell away, however, when he gazed in at the mess that had been left to accumulate in that small, tatami mat room. There were multitudes of boxes all heaped on top of each other, stuffed to bursting point with what seemed to be documents and the like; there were small pieces of furniture—dressers, chairs—all cluttered together and covered in a light coating of dust.

The Kansai trio stared into the room over Rin's shoulders. "We're supposed to find a book in all of _this_?" Shima asked, incredulously.

Konekomaru nodded. "Looks like it."

Bon pushed passed the others, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. "Better get to it then."

X

"How many more boxes are we gonna have to go through?"

"Quit your whining and just keep lookin'."

"Bon, you're so mean!"

Konekomaru sighed as he shifted another paper laden box out of the way and pulled another one open, shifting the papers around inside as he rummaged through it. "Just keep looking, it has to be here somewhere."

Yawning, Rin shoved another box away from himself and stretched his arms above his head. "How long have we been doing this?" he asked around his yawn. "We're not going to find it, I tell ya."

Bon shook his head. He was tired of the bickering, and he was simply tired in general, but he had to keep searching for that damn book; if they didn't find it it might as well be the end of it. This whole situation was getting out of hand—_had_ been out of hand for a while now—and everyone was really feeling the urgency of it all.

He shuddered as he dug around the bottom the box in front of him. He was only vaguely paying attention to the papers—mostly old invoices, catalogues, letters—he was shuffling around when he felt something underneath it all; it was small and rectangular, and felt rough under his fingers. Holding his breath, Bon reached another hand into the box and moved the papers around, digging for what he prayed was the book they were after; God knew they'd had enough false hopes during their search already.

"I've got it." Bon let out the breath he was holding as he lifted a small, battered looking book out from amongst the papers. It was small, like a pocket edition and had a series of cracks and bends running through the cover; the edges were worn and fuzzy, the paper cover beginning to peel away. Just holding it in his hands, it made him feel strange, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was that made it so.

Rin jumped up from where he was sitting. "Finally!" he said, moving to lean over Bon's shoulder to see the book, Shima and Konekomaru doing the same.

For a moment they only stared at the book as if they were in some sort of stupor, transfixed by the strange aura it was giving off. They shifted uneasily as they began to come to their senses, tearing their eyes away from the thing in Bon's hands. Shima looked between them, his brows knit together with worry.

"We've got it, yeah?" he said, glancing around the room nervously. It seemed more crowded than before, as if the boxes and pieces of old furniture wanted to come closer and have a look at the book too. "So let's go give it to Mr Okumura and be done with it. This room's creepy all of a sudden."

The others nodded their agreement. Hurriedly, the four of them kicked the rest of the boxes out of their way and headed for the door, obviously eager to get out of there and be done with the book; give it to Yukio or something, let someone else deal with the freaky thing. They did what they were asked, and until tomorrow night they wanted nothing more to do with it.

It was because of this frame of mind that they were in, that they hardly noticed the vague, human shaped blur as it rounded the corner down the hallway, though Konekomaru paused for a moment behind the others and gazed down the darkening hallway, squinting his eyes as if that alone would make him see better.

"What're you doing, Konekomaru?" Shima called out as he followed behind Rin and Bon.

Konekomaru shook his head; there was nothing there, all he could see was the dimly illuminated pattern of cherry blossoms. "Nothing," he said, padding along behind the trio. "Just my imagination, I guess."

By the time the four Exwires reached Yukio's room it seemed that their nerves had gradually frayed along the way; they were all trembling like autumn leaves in the wind when Yukio pulled open his door, and the looks in their eyes seemed to indicate that maybe Konekomaru should have spoken up when they left the storage room.

After a moment, Bon held the book out to Yukio and said simply, "We found it."

Yukio nodded as he took the book from Bon; as his fingers brushed over the battered cover a chill ran down his spine, though he made little to no indication of this in his actions. He simply dismissed the Exwires and repeated to them the time at which they were to congregate in the main entrance of the inn the next morning.

Once his juniors had turned the corner at the end of the hall and were out of sight, conversing animatedly, seemingly relieved that their task for the night was over with, Yukio headed back into his room, sliding the door shut behind him. Without looking up from the book in his hands, Yukio lowered himself down to the low table in the centre of the room and laid the book out in front of him. Glancing up for a moment before returning his eyes to the cover, he said, "What do you make of it?"

"We-ell," was the reply. The voice was soft and deep, though there was something hidden under it, just below the surface and only just discernible, as if the owner of the voice knew something, but wasn't going to spoil it for _anyone_. "It's certainly—_something_."

Yukio spun the book on the table to face away from him and pushed it across the smooth, polished surface to the man in front of him. "It's the book we need, yes?"

A set of perfectly manicured, albeit black fingernails slipped under the paper cover and flicked the book open. The mysterious voice hmm-ed for a moment as the fingers continued to flick past page after page. They were full of strange diagrams and sigils, and where there weren't images the pages were cramped with writing in a tiny, almost illegible font; there was hardly any paragraphing, mostly looking like walls of text. Every now and then the hands would pause and run along a line of writing before continuing on.

After a long silence, the fingers paused once again, though they didn't run across any text, instead they settled below what may have been a subheading. With a chuckle, the owner of the hands said, "Here you are, this is _all_ you're going to need."

Yukio nodded, taking the book back and glancing over the pages open in front of him. "So will you be staying, Mister Pheles?"

With a toothy grin and a mischievous wink, Mephisto nodded to the younger man. "Perhaps," he said, a hint of frivolous indifference in his voice. "We'll see how tomorrow goes first, shall we?"

X

For the rest of that night the village was ominously free from any storm. Despite this many of the exorcists found it difficult to sleep; Bon was one of them. After he and the others had made it back to their room and the door was shut tightly behind them, they once again started to talk and argue with each other, as if being within the four thin walls of their room made them feel secure.

It wasn't long before the futons were set out and the boys were buried under the duvets, breathing deeply in their sleep. Bon, however, wasn't quite as lucky as the others; he was unable to slip into a dreamless oblivion, and instead spent what felt like hours tossing and turning, rolling from one side to the other, gazing at the ceiling as a band of thoughts marched through his mind.

_It'll be over tomorrow,_ was the most prominent thought that flitted across his mind's eye; it was the one thing that persisted in grabbing his attention.

Rolling onto his side, he let out a long sigh. "I give up," he growled, kicking the covers off and onto the floor. Bon pushed himself to his feet and stretched his arms above his head, his shoulders popping as he brought his arms back down. He looked around the room for a moment; Rin was laying half in his futon and half out, his hands above his head as if he were being held up in a robbery and his mouth hanging open. Shima and Konekomaru seemed to be sleeping much more comfortably with the covers pulled up under their chins, as if they were sleeping in thick, fluffy cocoons.

Bon headed for the door, intent on getting some fresh air. As he slipped his hand around the door and slid it back, what he saw on the other side made his body freeze on the spot. Something wasn't right, he knew that much at least, though his mind hadn't quite registered what his eyes were seeing, and so he simply stood in the doorway, one hand on the door frame and the other hanging limply by his side.

"Pops?"

Stunned silent, Bon took a few steps towards the bent over figure in the middle of the hallway—no, that wasn't right, it wasn't a hallway anymore, it was much too large and wide. He wasn't even sure whether the figure ahead of him, shrouded in darkness and only just visible in the gloom, was really his father.

"Old man? What are you doing here?" he asked, with a quick glance at the door behind him—or where the door should have been. He looked back to the kneeling figure; it had to be his father, he could easily recognise the yellow robes and the bald daruma head even in the low light.

Even so, there was no reply. With his heart racing and whole body shaking, Bon knelt to the floor. _What am I doing?_ Was his only thought as he placed his hands on his knees and bent his head. He gripped the fabric of his pyjamas and closed his eyes, listening intently as a faint sound reached his ears. It was sitting just at the edge of his hearing; it sounded familiar, causing a strange sense of nostalgia to well up from within his chest.

_I loved listening to the old man chant sutra,_ Bon thought, sighing as his body began to relax with the recognition of where he was, and what he was hearing. _I spent so many years sitting here in the temple, just listening._

Lifting his head, Bon opened his eyes and glanced around. The temple was the same as it had always been, dimly lit and dusty, with the sound of branches scrapping lightly long the outside walls, but that was alright, that's what made it home. Along with the outline of his father's form silhouetted against the altar and the low tones of his chanting, all Bon felt was contentment. That was at least until something in the shadows caught his eye.

Bon's body stiffened and his muscles tensed as his eyes tracked whatever was in the shadows by the wall. He just _couldn't quite see it_, though he knew it was there; he could feel the hair on the back of his arms and neck standing on end, and his heart beating like mad. But why wasn't his father noticing it? He just continued his chanting as if he wasn't even pausing for breath.

_Maybe I'm imagining it,_ he mused, though that thought was washed clean away when another figure seemed to melt away from the shadows.

"What the hell..." he muttered, staring wide-eyed at the girl as she moved to stand beside his father. "Mon?"

The girl glanced at Bon for a moment and smiled. It was definitely Mon. Her hair was as it was after it had been cut short, and obscured most of her face, though it seemed the light was reflecting off something on her cheeks, something damp. He could also hear something dripping just under the sound of his father's sutra; he shuddered to see something dark running down her bare arms.

"不要担心," Mon said as she knelt down beside Bon's father and turned her back to him. She only sat in silence for a moment before her own voice joined that of his father, chanting, though slightly softer and in her native language, tonal and lilting as each syllable flowed off her tongue.

"What the hell's goin' on?" Bon stood from his kneeling position. Why was Mon there? He couldn't even hear his own footsteps over the sound of the chanting; it was getting louder and louder as he stumbled towards them, ringing in his ears and clouding his head. The shadows around the room were swimming in his vision, twisting and slithering around in the corners of his eyes. There were other things in the shadows, but he couldn't turn to see what they were. His eyes were transfixed on the pair before him.

Bon stood behind Mon, disorientated and swaying slightly. Slowly, he reached out a shaky hand and placed it on Mon's shoulder. He was confused to notice that her body was radiating cold, even through her clothing. He gripped her upper arm tightly and pulled her up to stand, turning her to face him.

Gasping, all Bon could do was stare. Mon's skin was pale with an unhealthy glow, and her hair was sticking to the sides of her face in damp tangles. She too, was staring back at him, her brown eyes reflecting what little light there was. Her lips were still moving as she continued to murmur her own kind of sutra.

Bon grit his teeth and swallowed, shaking his head as he felt his nails begin to dig into the girl's arm. "What's wrong with you?"

Mon paused. "当心," she muttered, as she brought one of her own hands up to rest lightly on Bon's chest. With horror he noticed they were damp, with a sick, rusty smell drifting off them. Smiling, she said again, "当心."

Grunting, Bon glanced down as a sudden pain shot through his chest, like a series of sharp, hot needles piercing his skin and digging into his flesh, creating a burning sensation that radiated out from the centre of his chest. He only felt a faint sense of surprise to see Mon's slender fingers sinking into the fabric over his heart, and inevitably his skin. He let out another articulation of pain as blood began to well to the surface, soaking into his clothing and running down over his stomach.

"Why?" was all he was able to ask, looking back to Mon's face, wincing and panting heavily, trying to fight against the haze that was beginning to fog his mind.

"因为我必须." As Mon spoke she pulled her fingers from Bon's chest with a wet slipping sound. Bon's knees gave out and he stumbled to the floor, bringing his hands to his chest as fists, pressing them tightly against him, to stem the flow of blood. He noticed vaguely that a faint trickle of blood was forming at the corners of his mouth.

With a soft chuckle, Mon brought her bloodied hand to her mouth. A dark, velvety tongue broke between her lips and ran over her fingers, lapping up the blood that dribbled down into the palm of her hand. "I'm sorry," she said.

Finis

**A/N: If you're reading this, thank you so much for finishing the chapter! (unless you just scrolled to the end, then I'm not happy Jan) Please leave some feedback so I know what you thought, like I said, it helps me to know whether people actually want more. Hopefully the next chapter should be along soon (the chapters are also going to start being a bit shorter, hopefully, at about 5-6,000 words each instead of the 7-8,000 they have been in the past).**

**Also, so you don't have to go to Google Translate or something (unless you already have) for the Chinese in the last bit. Here's what they mean:**

**"不要担心(bu yao dan xin)" means "Don't worry"**  
><strong>"当心(dang xin)" means "Be careful"<strong>  
><strong>"因为我必须(yinwei wo bixu)" means "Because I have to"<strong>

**And the singular footnote:**

**(1) "_Bing and Jun are restless..._" Bīng (兵) means soldier, and Jūn (军) means military or army.**


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